Rising technical standards of customers, legal requirements and the trend to minimize maintenance effort raise the thermal, mechanical and tribological loads on components of combustion engines. This study focuses on the complex tribological system piston ring-cylinder bore. An efficient performance has to be guaranteed during its lifetime. Therefore the optimization process has to consider the complete system. This means that the effect of materials, surface condition and lubricants has to be investigated. In this study, the tribological system of piston ring-cylinder bore of gas engines has been investigated. The primary goal was the development of a damage equivalent test methodology. The tribological system of piston ring-cylinder bore was modelled in scale and the tribological analogous model used was a ring on liner test. The research was done on two characteristic operating conditions. The standard operating system was modelled with ideal lubrication conditions. The extreme conditions were modelled using an abrasive type of lubricant. This type of test known as Arizona dust test displays the behaviour, typical to a system running on a lubricant contaminated by abrasive particles. To optimize the tribological loading capacity of the cylinder bore, with focus on these two operating conditions, numerous nitride coatings, have been investigated in a series of experiments. To verify the actual damage mechanisms of the system, reference tests have been carried out. Based on these results, damage equivalent test strategies have been derived. The key aspects were running in characteristic, long term wear behaviour and seizure resistance. After performing tests with constant parameters with different material combinations and lubricants with different degrees of cleanliness, a comprehensive damage analysis was performed. The developed models present out the different functions and damage mechanisms of the tribological system. Significant differences between the tested nitride coatings have been discovered. Furthermore the different behaviour and performance of the system, when using abrasive lubricant in long term tests was characterized. Significant differences between tested unmodified and nitrided versions have been visualized. Finally recommendations have been worked out and an outlook on future steps has been given.