Swim Lessons

It makes sense, but I feel like there's also cons to leaving it running as well...I guess in that particular situation it's picking the lesser of two evils lol.

 

Our air intake is surprisingly high. You'll get wet in the cab before you suck in water - usually

 

I think it's important to mention the ONLY way you'd suck in water from the tail pipe (if that's even possible) is if the truck is stuck nose-first on an incline. When you're stuck like this, water enters the tail pipe and flows up it towards the headers. If you are stuck butt-down it shouldn't be an issue. And yes, I too have been here before. My intake was under water and I was smart enough to kill the engine almost immediately as soon as I realized we weren't getting out of that shit.




My advice for anyone who's flooded the cab is to do the following...

1. Strip the interior IMMEDIATELY. Seats and carpet must come out ASAP.
2. Remove the stock carpet pads. They're worthless sponges now. Go to Home Depot or Lowes and buy new home carpet pad. A roll of it is something like $20 and that's more than enough to do the whole cab.
3. If you can't get a carpet cleaner to steam clean the carpet within 24 hours use a can of unscented Lysol all over the carpet to ensure nothing starts growing on it. This will prevent mildew from setting in till you can get it steam cleaned with a legit carpet cleaner. This step is critical.
4. The starter motor is likely going to start failing soon so expect it. Since it sits so low on the engine, water gets in there and slowly corrodes the copper contacts on the electromagnet. If your starter begins to exhibit symptons, remove your starter and dismantle it. Blow out the water with an air compressor and use some fine grit sand paper to sand down the copper contacts where the large bolt slams down on the contacts to complete the circuit.
5. This is a good time to change all your fluids. You have no idea what seeped into the reservoirs whilst sitting in the water for a period of time.
6. If you were in a nose-down situation your headlights likely filled with water. Good time to do the BHLM while you have the headlights apart to clean the inside.

If you do these steps properly your truck will be as good as new. Not many people know (or would guess) I've flooded the cab. PS: This was about 4 years/70k miles ago. Truck runs like a champ.

 

The cats run at temps near 1K degrees F. If you submerge the exhaust (let's assume intake is not in peril) and shut the truck down, the rapid decrease in temperature alone will suck water a long way up the system. I've read (don't know for sure) that there's momentary suction upon startup that can pull some of that water into the engine if you try to restart in this situation.

I don't mess with deep water, so I hope to never find out. Hopefully someone with more knowledge than me can confirm or bust this notion.

 

Yep. But that also assumes your exhaust is 100% air tight and can hold a vacuum for a while. Which isn't impossible but not all that likely.

And I'm curious about the startup thing sucking up water. Does the Tacoma have an air pump/recirculation system? I know my RX7 has a system where it takes exhaust gases and recirculates them a little bit. I wouldn't want water getting in there but like you say, it would only be an issue momentarily prior to the first cylinders expelling gas to move the water out.

 

I think my biggest question when it comes to swim lessons is how to keep the alternator from failing lol.
I just got back from being towed home 100 miles due to a cv axle having rocks stuck in it (torn boot) and the alternator failing immediately after being submerged under 3 feet of water. (nothing in the intake) 33's and 3 inch lift

 

I know this is an old thread but is there a version of this for the 3rd gen double cab? Flooded my truck over the weekend and need to pull the carpet out

 

Don't know. Call them up and ask them if it's an option for the fleet trucks (which it usually comes in) and then you'll know.