Long story short, there was an unavoidable puddle which was pretty deep. My car stopped in the middle of the puddle, I had to push it out of it and into a parking out. Than I tried to crank it, but it wouldn't turn on. Waited a little bit longer and it turned on but was spewing water out of the exhaust and white smoke. The car has an extremely loud knocking sound coming from the engine bay. I had tried to crank out any water out of the cylinders, but no water came out. Than I replaced the spark plugs within an hour. Now there is no more white smoke and the car starts up fine, but the knocking is still there.
This is the possible the worst time this could have happened. I needed to drive to socal tomorrow to go back to school. =/

Should I just bring it into a mechanic and have them look at it, or start looking for a new engine?

 

That sucks man, its been raining like crazy.

 

IT was in the bay area actually haha. The BJ's in Fremont =/

 

Was there any water on the spark plug threads? If there was, then the water was trying to somewhere, which means bye bye connecting rods.

 

mmmM BJ's good food.

 

puddles and me don t' mix.

 

somethings dead int he motor, i'd just pull it and rebuild it

 

sounds bad man. rain can be a worst enemy at times.

 

The only thing you didnt mention is changing the filter on your cai and the bypass and drying it out for any water and debris that the filter let thru that your still sucking up..

 

that sucks....

 

maybe your motor just needs to be cleaned up, but you did change your oil right?

 

Dude, that sucks... Try a couple of the suggestions others have all ready posted before anything too drastic. I hope it works and spares you the headache.

 

change the oil... thatd be the first thing to do after u tried to crank with out plugs to get water out

 

so the bay is getting hit hard with the rain huh?

 

Say it aint so bro, I hope your tC is alright

 

How deep was the puddle? I cause traffic jams for even the smallest puddles lol

 

^ x2......

 

Tried all of that, still knocking. The puddle was about a foot deep, but I'm lowered with s-techs and have an injen cai with no bypass or water shield. My plans are to have my parents bring it to a shop or toyota dealer and have them look at it to see if anything could be done. If it comes down to a new motor and the price quote is $5000+ than I'm going to sell my car for a reasonable price for someone who wants to rebuild the engine for turbo or whatnot.

 

Lowered + CAI + deep puddle = death of your motor

Obviously Toyota isn't going to cover it, might see if your insurance company would cover it.

Heck when I worked at a body shop we had a honda civic motor replaced because it hydrolocked and the car was lowered and had an intake (short ram but it was near the fender-well).

 

Damn....sorry to hear that bro, you should be able to find an engine and get it installed for a lot cheaper than 5k.
Good Luck