Engine dies in rain

[BSawdo]

yesterday I was driving our 2007 explorer in heavy rain and the engine died and would not start. After we sat there for about 30 minutes I decided to try it again. It started right up like normal. Ideas?

 

[DavidEBSmith]

Check for water leaking through the cowl between the hood and the windshield and dripping onto the rear spark plugs and filling the plug holes and shorting out the coils. The plastic piece under the cowl is held on via clips that go into holes directly above the spark plugs. In a heavy rain, water can leak through the holes. This happened fairly regularly on our Mountaineer until I got heavy foil-backed HVAC sealant tape and covered all the holes from underneath.