The dependence of the ignition timing in an HCCI engine on intake temperature and pressure, equivalence ratio, and fuel species is investigated with a zero-dimensional model combined with a detailed chemical kinetics. The accuracy of the model is evaluated by comparing measured and computed results in a propane-fueled HCCI engine. It is shown that the peak pressure values are reproduced within 10% and ignition timing within 5$^{circ}$ CA. The heat loss through the walls is found to affect significantly on the ignition timing for different inlet conditions. It is also shown that for the propane-fueled engine, the tolerance in intake temperatures is 20-25K and the tolerance in intake pressure is about 1 bar for stable operation without misfire or too early ignition. Comparison of propane and heptane fuels indicates that the tendency to misfire when heptane is employed as the fuel is less than that when propane is employed with the same wall temperature conditions. However, the heptane-fueled engine may have a lower compression ratio to avoid too early ignition and hence lower efficiency. For the selected set of engine parameters, stable operations might be achieved for the heptane-fueled engine with twice as much tolerance in intake temperatures as for the propane-fueled engine.