The change of some parameters of an engine structure affects emission of harmful components in engine’s exhaust. This applies first of all to damages in a charge exchange system as well as in a fuel system and an engine supercharging system. These changes are significantly greater during dynamic states and in the time transient processes. It is possible to talk about different sensitivities of emission factors understood here as diagnostic parameters for the same extortion from the structure of the engine but executed in other load states. The article presents a diagnostic model of the engine in which the diagnostic symptoms are indicators and characteristics of the emission of gaseous exhaust components. The model was supplemented with the results of tests on the real object, which was a marine diesel engine. Propose measures of the sensitivity of the diagnostic parameter during dynamic processes - processes characterized by high variability of waveforms, which variability causes problems not only of measurement nature, but also often interpretive.