Deserts Hold No Water

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Deserts Hold No Water

Written By: Gibson Hull
November 12, 2024

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Chapter 01: Alpine, Marfa, Terlingua, Lajitas, and Back

I stared at the temperature gauge screaming at me from the red zone as Helio and I swung into the shadow of a mesa on a sweeping stretch of sunbleached highway. As we clattered out of the desert shadow heading back to San Antonio from Terlingua, I was sweating. Despite the cool 60° February day on TX-118 to Alpine.

My old 1993 Defender 90 and I were in Lajitas to play golf on the Rio Grande as a part of a long weekend exploring Marfa, Alpine, Terlingua, and Lajitas. I had just moved to San Antonio from Washington DC to join my then girlfriend back in Texas. This was the first long trip with Helio since moving back, and the first long miles since the trip I took to purchase him.

This trip was already exciting enough when I almost ran out of gas between Fort Stockton and Alpine on the long voyage west. Friends joining from Austin were a couple hours behind me, and were prepared to play chase-vehicle if need be. Luck was with us though, as we made it in on fumes coasting into the first gas station in Alpine with its tall down-hill stretch into town.

Fig. 01: West texas roads.

Fig. 02: Helio in Lajitas.

Fig. 03: Marfa grainery.

Fig. 04: Plannning the next adventure.

Fig. 07: Lajitas mountain.

Fig. 05: Wave to Mexico.

Fig. 06: Lajitas golf.

Chapter 02: “Waattteerrrr...”

After a few fun filled days of golf and touristing around far West Texas, it was time to make my way back home. I noticed the high temp gauge with about an hour’s drive left up to Alpine. I immediately stopped to check things over. I couldn't spot any glaring problems and it appeared there was nothing amiss. I chalked it up to a heavy right foot, an old truck, and some elevation change. After letting Helio cool off for about 20 minutes, we picked it back up. The temp gauge would cooperate if I kept my speed to around 50 mph, and I didn’t push it up the steep stuff.

Here I was with a brand new-to-me old truck, 6+ hours from home, maybe a coolant leak, maybe a busted thermostat, or worst of all a fried head gasket. I could only imagine the towing cost for 400 miles, not to mention the time to wait on a tow truck out in the desert. I felt immensely better when we limped around another pass and Alpine rolled into view. We made a slow beeline for the first gas station we could find. I popped the hood again with temps close to red. The coolant overflow tank was empty. My stomach dropped. Had I just driven it another hour with NO coolant?!

I went straight inside for coolant and water and began to fill Helio back up, checking everywhere for leaks. After restarting the engine and topping off the dry overflow tank, I started to see the leaks and what appeared to be coolant going everywhere in the engine bay. I tried in vain for 30 minutes to find a leak. Finally I decided that an auto parts store parking lot may be a better place to troubleshoot before it was too late. With everything as topped off as possible we eased 2 minutes deeper into Alpine. For some reason I have quite a car history with Alpine. It is where my dad and I went to look over, buy, and drag back my very first project car: a 1966 International Scout.

Fig. 08: Helio heading out.

Fig. 09: 10 hours from home.

In the auto parts store parking lot leaking water and coolant everywhere, I had a closer look. It appeared that the leak was coming from somewhere on the front of the engine, and also from somewhere around the coolant overflow tank. It also seemed to leak much more when up to temperature. Being that I was alone in the center of everywhere West Texas, my last hope was the magic elixir, the king of all get you home fluids: K-Seal (Fig. 11).

K-Seal is a fluid filled with tiny particles that you add to your coolant system to fill any tiny little gaps or holes in an effort to stop small leaks. I was skeptical whether it would actually work on the leak that appeared to be coming from the water pump. The salesmen were perplexed by my “old jeep”. They were nice enough to let me top off all my water and coolant bottles from the store’s tap and sell me some K-seal. I poured it in, added more water, ran the truck for a short time, and it appeared to do the trick!

Off we went. After the first hour of cruising at 55 with the temp gauge chilling between middle and red, I was getting more and more hopeful we would avoid a tow. It appeared that the K-Seal was doing its job. Cruising along I get a text. Despite having left first, my friends had all passed me on their way back to Austin. They themselves were about to run out of gas! Confident we could make it back, Helio and I became the chase-vehicle ourselves, and followed my friends to a town well off the highway. They barely made it to the gas station in time and Helio and I rolled in as they were heading out. We topped off the diesel and checked coolant levels again. It appears the K-Seal was just enough to avoid catastrophic coolant loss, and the slow leak only required topping off the overflow tank every time we stopped for gas. We turned towards home, stopping another 5 times for diesel and more water before rolling into San Antonio late after 10 hours on the road.

Fig. 10: Alpine auto parts store.

Fig. 11: K-Seal.

Chapter 03: The fix.

Over the next few days I hunted for coolant leak culprits and since the k-seal had appeared to stop the leak coming from around the waterpump on the engine, I narrowed down the problem to something around the plastic overflow tank. Sure enough, after removing the tank I found a split along the middle seam. It probably split on one of the sub-freezing desert nights in Marfa.

I ordered a new tank, installed it using some stage 01 tools, added fresh fluid, and we were back in action! However, I am never one to leave a job half finished, and I wanted everything back to 100% reliability. That meant it was time for this 135,000 mile engine to get a new water pump. While we were at it I wanted to tackle the most important bit of maintenance for the 200tdi dragging this old truck around: The Timing Belt.

Stay tuned for the next one and subscribe below to get notified of new posts!

Photos courtesy of Jonathan McClelland, Alex Kaplan, and Gibson Hull

Fig. 12: Helio home late, but safe and sound.