Commentary by Steve Sturgess, Executive Editor

One of the more intriguing devices I have stumbled across at shows is the Intellistick. It is, as you may have already guessed from the name, an intelligent replacement for the humble dipstick.

It's an oil condition and temperature monitor, tracking additive depletion, increasing viscosity, but most importantly, instantly indicating the presence of water or coolant in the lube oil.

When I saw it I was impressed. After all, having the oil condition at your fingertips, so to speak, is a big plus for any machine, especially an internal combustion engine. But when I saw the price at around $500, I could see that the military-derived product would have some significant market objections. After all, you can get a lot of information from ongoing oil analysis at a fraction of the price.

Of course, you don't get the available instant contamination notice, which can be communicated from the truck to the back office in real time. That's information you need to act on immediately to avoid costly damage, especially if the truck has just had an oil change and has thousands of miles to run before the next change and analysis flags the coolant in the oil.

But, as fleet owners and maintenance managers, you will know how frequently oil contamination is occurring (quite a lot with some models of engines where liners shift or injector tubes leak!).

That first look at the Intellistick was at the annual Technology and Maintenance Council meeting in 2008. Three years later, the Intellistick has been significantly enhanced with different sensors and a fleet management package that makes the value proposition a whole lot more attractive.

The sensors now include a threaded unit that mounts in to the block for users who prefer that. It, like the original, still communicates via Bluetooth, or it can now be ported in to a communications hub via an RS232 connector. Most importantly, the fleet package can report up to 350 feet to a Bluetooth-equipped receiver, so trucks in the safety lane can automatically report on the condition of the engine oil as the truck gets its inspection.

It's handy for the one-truck owner-operator, too, as he cranks up his Bluetooth-enabled laptop or even a Windows PDA or smartphone in the sleeper.

The sensors interrogate the oil with a low voltage and specific frequency. The readings are graphed and the software interprets the readings over time to display a Kauffman curve. This is a distinctive curve developed by research chemist Robert Kauffman of the University of Dayton Research Institute that tracks the depletion of the additives with a downward sloping line. The curve flattens out then starts to rise as the oil oxidizes. It is during the flat part of the curve that the oil should be changed. The beauty of the Intellistick software is that it actually interprets this and gives intelligent messages. such as "oxidation occurring" and "viscosity increasing."

So what you have is condition-based oil changes rather than regular mile-based PMs. Potentially, that can save oil changes and improve uptime. Certainly you will know from any spike on the curve if there is any contamination of the lube oil from a cooling system problem or even condensation in the oil pan because of weather conditions. That means a prompt decision to pull the truck in for attention before any further damage is caused.

Since the sensors also read oil temperature, there is another safeguard fleets can use to detect an overheating engine, again in real time if necessary.

It's a neat technology that has the potential to pay for itself in oil-change savings. What that ROI or payback period will be will depend on the type of equipment you operate and any extended drains you may be running already.

But for sure, once it's paid for, that water-in-the-oil safeguard is coming along for the ride, and it's great insurance against a disaster.

From the February 2010 issue of Heavy Duty Trucking.