In article l.net,
Dave Liquorice writes
On Mon, 17 Feb 2020 14:46:10 +0000 (GMT), Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

Indeed! But also there was that bit of vid on the BBC news showing
a
street in Wales I think were a Audi was bombing down the road with

water up to and then over its bonnet makes me wonder just how it
kept
on f driving maybe the air intake is just that little bit higher?

I've been told driving at more than a crawling pace can create a bow
wave that keeps the engine air intake above the water. But just passing
that on with zero experience of doing so.

Well I got away with driving through a flood with the water lapping
up onto the bonnet like that Audi but it took a lot of throttle and
clutch slipping in 1st just to keep the thing moving and not letting
the water get further up the bonnet. Water does not want to get out
of the way like air...

I suspect that there is an "optimum" speed for going through a flood.
Too fast and water is thrown up into the engine compartment soaking
distributer or plugs, leads, coil packs or getting injested. Still
has to get past the air filter but I guess a soggy air filter won't
let enough air through. Too slow water can rise up into the engine
compartment with similar effect. "Optimum" the water doesn't get a
chance to rise up behind the grill, radiator, oil coolers, aircon
condensor etc. So the engine stays dry.

Yup. Enter slowly and go just fast enough to create the bow wave and you
get a dip in the water behind it.
The low down starter motor was never quite the same after my deep
flood drive but nothing else suffered.


--
bert