The objective of this study is to investigate the feasibility of two-stage injection on combustion and exhaust emission characteristics in diesel (main fuel) ethanol (pilot fuel) fuelled single cylinder diesel engine. The pressure crank angle and net heat release rate diagrams revealed that increase in the ethanol pilot quantity causes an increase in the ignition delay in the pilot combustion and hence the main combustion due to diesel fuel is slightly influenced by the ethanol pilot fuel. The increase in the pilot injection decreases the NOx considerably. The concentration of soot emissions also decreases with increase in pilot injection. The CO emissions increases with increase in pilot injection and a slight increase in HC emission is observed.