I Drove Through Flood Water, Car Stalled, What To Do?

The engine sucked water through the intake and could be hydro-locked. You'll have to remove all of the spark plugs and crank the engine with them removed in order to get the water out of the cylinders. Water doesn't compress so don't try to crank it over with it in the cylinders.  I would disconnect the fuel pump fuse so that fuel won't be injected as you crank the engine over. Water if there is any in the cylinders will shoot out the spark plug holes.Your distributer depending on the vehicle might have got wet, remove the cap and dry it out as well as your intake. Just buy a new air filter they are inexpensive anyway.
Change the oil and oil filter as well and try to start it up once reassembled.

The first thing to do is to NOT try and start it. If you sucked water into the engines cylinder you could do damage!

1. Open the hood, let everything dry.

2. Take off the distributor cap (if there is one) and dry the inside of the distributor off.

3. Remove the spark plugs. Crank the engine, if any water comes out of the spark plug holes you may want to consider doing a compression test to make sure everything is ok. And by some means you should use some plastic tubing to suck all possible water out of the cylinders.

4. Make sure the oxygen sensor(s) are dry. Make sure all the electronics are dry too. It would be good to unplug (one at a time) every electrical connector and dry them off.

Dry out the air filter and air intake hose.

That depends.

If it was a really big puddle and the engine actually sucked in water then there is a good chance that your engine is badly damaged. :(

But if it was only a little puddle then maybe the engine only got wet on the outside. Recovery from this will involve letting everything dry, this alone may work.

It is also possible that the engine got "flooded" with fuel as you tried to start it when it was wet. To fix this is more complicated: You must remove the spark plugs, dry them, and leave them out for a few hours to let the fuel evaporate from inside the cylinders. Put the plugs back and try to start. BE VERY SURE THAT YOU MARK ALL THE PLUG WIRES SO THEY GO BACK IN THE CORRECT FIRING ORDER!

Dry out the air filter and air intake hose. Try to start, if it does then let it run. It will run bad for a little while but will soon smooth out when the water gets burned out of the system.

First Check the oil via dipstick. If the oil does not appear milky, then don’t worry about it. After oil is up to operating temperature, all of the water in it will evaporatequickly and be taken out through the PCV and burned in the engine.

Steam can damage the iridium plugs. Doing a leak down test could tell you if you might have any internal damage.

The engine might sucked water through the intake and is hydro-locked. You'll have to remove all of the spark plugscrank the enginein order to get the water out of the cylinders. You may also need to change the engine oil and transmission fluid. It will also be a good idea to change out the brake and power steering fluid too.

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