A method for determining a signal offset between a crankshaft angle signal and a combustion chamber pressure signal includes: measuring the combustion chamber pressure signal; shifting an alignment of the measured combustion chamber pressure signal with respect to the crankshaft angle signal by a plurality of respective offset angles to generate a plurality of offset combustion chamber pressure signals; reconstructing the offset combustion chamber pressure signals using a plurality of predetermined inherent pressure curves to generate reconstructed combustion chamber pressure signals; determining reconstruction errors of the reconstructed combustion chamber pressure signals as a function of differences between the offset combustion chamber pressure signals and the reconstructed combustion chamber pressure signals; and determining the signal offset between the crankshaft angle signal and the combustion chamber pressure signal as a one of the plurality of offset angles producing the reconstruction error having the lowest value.