Ever wonder how deep is too deep with a stock Jeep Cherokee? Keep reading.

We have had a bit of flooding here in the Pacific Northwest lately, and the adventurous side of me decided that this would be a great opportunity to test out the water crossing capability of my recently acquired 1993 Jeep Cherokee. The results are summarized below.

Halfway up the tires - Good to go!
Bottom of the bumper - This is really cool!
Top of the bumper - How is this thing still running so good?
Bottom of the headlights - This is getting deep...
Top of the headlights - I should really stop and back up.
Edge of the hood - Hello hydrolock.

So for those of you wondering just how deep your stock Cherokee can go, now you know. Now I'm going to go clean the water out and hopefully get it running again.

 

Cool story bro. I just figured it was common sense to know that once your intake is under water the engine will seize. Now I know for sure.

 

Your air intake is behind your drivers side headlight ... so yeah, you went a bit too far.
Time for the LS1 swap!!!

 

Yeah, the water got deeper faster than I bargained for. It died right as I was going for reverse. I bought the jeep as a project...it just became a bit more of a project sooner than I had hoped!

 

The air intake is right behind the headlight.

But I'm sure you know that now.

lol

 

 

:facepalm:

 

Why would you even post this...LMFAO

 

Because I figured that someone needed to feel smart by pointing out how dumb driving into water deeper than the stock intake is. :P

I wouldn't have driven through it if I knew it was hood deep...just one of those life lessons learned the hard way.

 

have you done anything yet? tried to start it up? if you haven't touched it, pull the spark plugs out and crank the engine for about 2 seconds, it should spit out some of the water. repeat this once or twice then change all the oil. I learned the hard way too, but that motor fired right back up and we kept wheeling

the longer you let it sit the more ****ed you are

 

I get ya...but if you don't know how deep it is, don't be drivin' there, just sayin' LOL

 

guess that's why his username is jeep'n'hike. jeep in, hike out

 

LMAO

 

Jeep in , hike out...LOL...that wasn't quite my intent, but that's a good one. I actually did that once in my previous Jeep before I lifted it. It sucked.

Update on the status of the Jeep

After it died, I did the typical crank it once to see if it turns, and it didn't. I knew enough to not keep trying, so once I got it pulled out of the water and towed home (with my other truck and a buddy), I did the following:

- pulled all the plugs
- sucked out the intake with a shop vac
- cranked it over and it blew out quite a bit of water
- used a ton of WD-40 in the cylinders and intake, cranking it over occasionally
- installed all the plugs and wires
- cranked it over and it started!
- let it run for a minute tops
- changed the oil
- let it run enough to warm up
- changed the oil again
- drove it around the block and all seems to be OK

Next thing to do is change all the other fluids!

 

dude did you try to save it by pulling the plugs and cranking it like I said?? you can save a jeep once it hydrolocks just don't let it sit there forever