Hydro Locked Motor

[tomfrojr]

The other day I was going 4-wheeling with a couple of buddies. There was a nice size puddle that I saw a Jeep,Ford F150 and a Toyota 4Runner go through. I knew they were more capable than I was but still I proceded to go through the puddle aswell.
I tried to skert arround the edge but wound up slipping in from the mud. I sucked water up into my air intake and then the truck stalled out.
I stupidly tried to turn it over again but it diddent start! I removeed the plugs after the first attempt to turn it over and still no go.
I talked to a Mechaninc and he said I hydro locked my engine. I am getting another motor installed shortly and I do wanna go 4-Wheeling again but want to avoid this from happening again.
Now here is my question. I have benn pondering over the idea of putting in a K&N Fuel injection performance kit. The mechanic said that companies spend loads of money recearching their engines and such and that It wouldent make that much of a difference let alone changing from cold air induction to hot engine air. Is there a way to re-rout the intake easily or would the K&N FIPK make such a difference that it wouldent matter.
I want to go 4 Wheeling again but want to help lesten the chanse of this happening again.
I own a 96 XLT 4X4

 

[JDraper]

If you have the conical filter setup in your X, the easiest thing to do is remove the bottom portion of the filter box and attach the filter directly to the intake tube. ExplorerEB96 did the same thing to her X and ended up with a new motor too. The problem is that the location of the air intake for the conical filter box is very prone to sucking H2O. Remove the bottom of the box from the truck and just use the metal band to attach the filter directly to the intake tube and the truck will be much safer to drive in water.

 

[rockylaurence]

On mine I removed the Cold Air Induction tube that sits low and is prone to scooping in water. W/o it, it now draws air in at the top of the fenderwell. True, the air is pulled from within the hot engine compartment but I dont have to be concerned about hydrolock until I'm way deep in water.:redexp:

 

[Jason_25]

Had the same thing happen to me, my friend. I was so sad Cost me so much money.

Here's what I did.

1.Removed air box entirely.
2.Put a 3 inch tall piece of wood on plastic that the box used to rest on, attached it to airbox mounts
3.Put K&N in, attached with factory clamp, it now sits on top of wood

I have had NO problems mudding since!