Several benchmarking space charge experiments have been performed during the last few years in the CERN Proton Synchrotron. These controlled experiments are of paramount importance to validate the present very powerful simulation codes. The observations of the combined effect of space charge and nonlinear resonance on beam loss and emittance, using a single controllable octupole during ∼1s at 1.4GeV kinetic energy, are discussed in some detail in the present paper. By lowering the working point towards the octupolar resonance, a gradual transition from a regime of loss-free core emittance blow-up to a regime of continuous loss was found.