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As a technique for monitoring engine wear, direct measurement surface layer activation (SLA) offers some important advantages compared to either SLA by the tracer technique or traditional engine wear tests conducted in a test cell or in the field. With SLA, wear can be monitored real time as the engine is running, and under realistic operating conditions. By measuring the loss of activity due to wear in the component or components of interest directly, wear rates in terms of dimensional changes can be calculated. Using the direct measurement SLA method, the wear rate for a given duty cycle, oil condition and level of filtration can be established in 24 hours of engine operation. The dependence of top piston ring face wear rates on oil contamination level resulting from different filtration levels was measured in a heavy duty diesel engine. By transforming the wear rate into a component life prediction, the effect of filtration efficiency on component life is shown quantitatively.