engine cutting out

If it has a distributor cap, check that to see if there is moisture inside of that. If so, wipee it out with a clean cloth

Healybj is correct. Another way to remove the water is with WD40. It will displace the water that is inside the distributer cap. While you are at it, spray the plug wires. small cracks in the wires can collect water, giving the high voltage a path to ground. This type of water shorting is at it's worst when cylinder pressure rises. Cylinder pressure rises when you step on the gas. Good luck.

The problem could also be deeper and I'm afraid more expensive. I had a similar problem with my VW Jetta TDI (Diesel) some time ago. Ran through a puddle of water at 120 km/hr and the car started performing badly. It turned out that the slug of water coming into the air intake damaged the Air flow meter and which had to be replaced at a cost of about $250-00. It depends on how modern and fancy your car is - if your air flow is measured by meter and fed into the car's computer for maximum efficiency you could have the same problem. The modern day engines are wonderful and reliable but can get complicated with resultant higher costs to repair.

Good luck

Peter

You got off very lucky with the water ingestion. If that water had gotten into the combustion chamber, the connecting rod could bend. Water being noncompressible, and the inertia of the engine, something has to give. Years back we had an injector stick on a 6.9 liter in a ford truck. The dead cylinder sounded like something had broken in the bottom end. The dealer found the rod bent. We were one month away from the end of the warranty. WE were lucky that time.

Better get a snorkel for that puddle jumper

I had an International Harvester pickup truck some years ago. The distributor was located at the front of the engine. That was a great location for doing tune-ups. Unfortunately whenever it rained I had stalling problems. The problems stopped after I replaced the distributor cap. Whatever damage was there wasn't easily visible. So, in your case, I would suggest checking the distributor first - It is very vulnerable.

That is one of the great things about WD40. It will displace the water in the cap. If it happens again, thrash the cap and get a new one.

The problem could be as simple as water soaking of the air filter. The fibers may have "fluffed up" and are restricting air flow. This would cause an engine to run fine at idle or a bit above, but when RPMs are increased, the fuel mixture enrichens, causing a misfire which in turn causes the oxygen sensor to think the engine is running too rich and the management system then leans out the mixture, causing more problems. Try the cheap fix first. Change the air filter, it probably needed changing anyway so that could amount to a no cost fix.