The aim of this paper is to investigate the friction characteristics of piston assembly, which composed of ring pack and piston skirt. The friction force of piston assembly was measured by using the movable liner in the single cylinder engine, and the various parameters were tested. The friction force was suddenly increased at the expansion stroke due to higher cylinder pressure. The viscous friction was dominant at the mid stroke, but the boundary friction was dominant at the top and bottom dead centers. Through the experiment, we could validate previous theoretical study, and confirm that th e radial clearance and ring tension were very effective to reduce friction loss of piston assembly.