In this paper the systematic development of an optical swirl sensor to measure the swirl ratio in an operating serial turbocharged DI-diesel engine is described. The optical sensor detects the visible light of the combustion, in particular the emission of the sooting flame in a wavelength range from 600 nm up to 1000 nm. The acceptance angle is so small that the soot clouds from every spray can be detected as they are being turned under the optical sensor by the swirling flow. In a first part the new optical probe method was validated on a transparent engine by comparison with high speed video recordings. In the second part several hardware variations were made on a serial DI-diesel engine which was equipped with a variable swirl valve. The influence of the opened- and closed swirl valve constellation and the piston geometry on the swirl ratio was measured with the optical probe technique. The results were compared with a zero dimensional simulation model. There was a good agreement between the swirl measurements and the 0D-model. The optical swirl sensor has proven to be a powerful tool to optimise the combustion process. Without any modifications on the cylinder head, the effect of application parameters and hardware parts on the swirl strength can be quantified for all engine loads and speeds.