Biodiesel fuel(BDF) can be effectively used as an alternative fuel in diesel engine. However, BDF may affect the performance and exhaust emissions in diesel engine because it has different physical and chemical properties from diesel fuel such as viscosity, compressibility and so on. To investigate the effect of injection timing on the characteristics of performance and exhaust emissions with BDF in IDI diesel engine, it was applied the BDF derived from soybean oil in this study. The engine was operated at seven different injection timings from TDC to BTDC $12^{circ}CA$ and six loads at a single engine speed of 1500rpm. When the fuel injection timing was retarded, better results were showed, which may confirm the advantages of BDF. The simultaneous reduction of smoke and NOx was achieved at some fixed fuel injection timings of an IDI diesel engine.