I'm from back east, and so I've been in mud. I mean, I'm familiar. So, when we found a big puddle of water in the middle of a dry lake bed, I crawled into it to test how deep it was. Then, I crawled across it laterally to see if the tires would climb the 4-foot tall muddy embankment. All the while figuring, well the JK doesn't have a distributor, so the odds of me drowning it are minimal.
I was so excited about the lack of a dizzy that I didn't even pause to think about where the JK drew air from. I just assumed it was up under the hood like the TJ was.
Yeah, nope. The JK draws the air from behind the hood right next to where the hood and the fender meet. So, when you get water coming over the hood and fender, and you stay on the gas to keep moving, you draw the water off the fender into the engine.
This is the aftermath. I figured, "I didn't try to re-start the engine, and inspected things right after it died. If I pull the plugs and crank it (like a 4.0) it should clear out just fine." There's another big nope.
The JK was one of the fleet from Farrabee's Jeep Rentals, and the guy seen working on it with me is Joey, from the Sedona Arizona branch. As it turns out, this is the second of two JKs they've had hit deep water and die. Apparently the good old mini-van motor's internals aren't all that beefy.
The weird thing about it is, once we got alll the plugs out (which were dry) and checked the cylinders (which were dry), the engine still wouldn't turn over. And, with a breaker bar, no dice either.
So, water in the airbox, some at the front of the intake by the throttle body, and none in the cylinders. What does that all equate to? A boneheaded editor who should have known better.