This paper investigates the effect of injection timing on a multicylinder direct injection (DI) diesel engine using diesel and blends of diesel, biodiesel, and ethanol with a 70:20:10 ratio on a volume basis. This study mainly focuses on how advancing injection timings influence engine performance, emissions, and combustion characteristics compared with standard injection timing. The experiments have been conducted based on the European Stationary Cycle (ESC). The pressure history reveals that blended fuel has a 6.4% lower peak pressure than diesel fuel operation at standard injection timing (SIT), while advanced timings result in comparable peak pressures for both fuels. The lower rate pressure for blended fuels indicates its knock-free operation at both standard and advanced injection timings, the low heat release rate for the blended fuels at normal injection timing has improved to a comparable value as that of diesel fuel operation at both injection timings. The performance and emission comparison indicates that advanced injection timing improves brake thermal efficiency by 5.87%, and reduces both smoke and NOx by 47.74% and 16.29%. A reduction of 17.79% for the CO2 emissions and a slight change in unburned hydrocarbon emissions (+0.5%) for 4° advancement in injection timing for blended fuel compared to diesel. The angle of 5%, mass burning for blended fuel shows a delayed appearance than diesel at all injection timings. On the other hand, the 10% and 50% mass burning angles occurred later than diesel; however, this trend reversed with advanced injection timing. The end of combustion represented by an angle of 90% mass burning has shown extended for the blended fuels in both injection timing. These results highlight the use of advanced injection timing to enhance the performance, combustion, and emissions characteristics of diesel engines fueled with diesel, hydrous ethanol, and biodiesel blends.