DVexile
Adventurer
I cross water perhaps once a decade. OK, maybe two times if it is an out and back route 
Mojave desert usually, some Utah. At slow speed, trying to maintain steady progress with a bow wave. Very nervous if over hub height, would consider bottom of door/bumper height if I knew there was no way I'd get stuck (i.e. walked it first). So pretty darn conservative.
2nd gen Tacoma has the intake in the fender, a reasonably high position unlikely to ingest water with reasonable technique in a "sensible" crossing. But I've seen more than one person take an unexpected front end dip along the way, often when entering but sometimes an unseen pothole along the way. And that could mean hydro-lock.
I am aware such a mistake is also a good way to break your fan and thus potentially your radiator too. But a broken fan and radiator does not stop the truck, so you still can exit the hazard, and a broken fan and radiator is a heck of a lot cheaper than a hydro-locked engine. Breathers, ECU, etc. etc. of course also issues with varying levels of mitigation prior to or post an unexpectedly poor crossing. Again, draining a transmission is a lot easier than bent rods...
So the main concern is accidental water ingestion in an otherwise "sensible" water crossing gone a little bit bad.
Obviously an external snorkel would help, at the cost of buying one and installing one and then driving it around for the 3651 days a decade I don't need it at all.
So I had another thought. On the 2nd gen Tacoma V6 the air filter is right against the manifold practically on top of the engine with a long tube running to the fender. I saw a clever mod where someone re-routed this to the cowl under the windshield instead. What I'm thinking instead is to leave the configuration stock except in the very rare case I'm doing a water crossing. Then I'd disconnect the tube running to the fender (it is just a hose clamp) and just attaching a small 90 degree bend to point towards the windshield, possibly rotated a bit upward as much as the hood allows. In this configuration air is being drawn from under the hood way up in the back of the engine compartment. You'd have to be in an absolute disaster of a crossing to get water in there. You wouldn't want to run this way on the highway, but for running a 100 yards to cross modest water it seems a fairly certain way of avoiding hydro-lock. Inconvenient for frequent crossings of course, but like I said I hardly ever do it.
Thoughts? I can't see how this would *hurt* anything given used only at low speed for a short run. I'm the kind of coward who actually would stop and take the time to put the elbow on before crossing something...
For reference, this is a shot of a V6 with the stock tube going to the fender:
This is a shot of a V6 with the tube removed, I'd attach a 90 elbow to point towards the windshield (i.e. rear of engine compartment):
Mojave desert usually, some Utah. At slow speed, trying to maintain steady progress with a bow wave. Very nervous if over hub height, would consider bottom of door/bumper height if I knew there was no way I'd get stuck (i.e. walked it first). So pretty darn conservative.2nd gen Tacoma has the intake in the fender, a reasonably high position unlikely to ingest water with reasonable technique in a "sensible" crossing. But I've seen more than one person take an unexpected front end dip along the way, often when entering but sometimes an unseen pothole along the way. And that could mean hydro-lock.
I am aware such a mistake is also a good way to break your fan and thus potentially your radiator too. But a broken fan and radiator does not stop the truck, so you still can exit the hazard, and a broken fan and radiator is a heck of a lot cheaper than a hydro-locked engine. Breathers, ECU, etc. etc. of course also issues with varying levels of mitigation prior to or post an unexpectedly poor crossing. Again, draining a transmission is a lot easier than bent rods...
So the main concern is accidental water ingestion in an otherwise "sensible" water crossing gone a little bit bad.
Obviously an external snorkel would help, at the cost of buying one and installing one and then driving it around for the 3651 days a decade I don't need it at all.
So I had another thought. On the 2nd gen Tacoma V6 the air filter is right against the manifold practically on top of the engine with a long tube running to the fender. I saw a clever mod where someone re-routed this to the cowl under the windshield instead. What I'm thinking instead is to leave the configuration stock except in the very rare case I'm doing a water crossing. Then I'd disconnect the tube running to the fender (it is just a hose clamp) and just attaching a small 90 degree bend to point towards the windshield, possibly rotated a bit upward as much as the hood allows. In this configuration air is being drawn from under the hood way up in the back of the engine compartment. You'd have to be in an absolute disaster of a crossing to get water in there. You wouldn't want to run this way on the highway, but for running a 100 yards to cross modest water it seems a fairly certain way of avoiding hydro-lock. Inconvenient for frequent crossings of course, but like I said I hardly ever do it.
Thoughts? I can't see how this would *hurt* anything given used only at low speed for a short run. I'm the kind of coward who actually would stop and take the time to put the elbow on before crossing something...
For reference, this is a shot of a V6 with the stock tube going to the fender:
This is a shot of a V6 with the tube removed, I'd attach a 90 elbow to point towards the windshield (i.e. rear of engine compartment):
