lol!!!!

 

No chance. That much water and you'd have big issues. Coil packs and the ECU don't particularly like being submerged. Maybe if you had a diesel you could wade through rearview mirror deep water, not with a gasoline though.
For a gas engine you get cleaner/cooler air by pulling from way up top, but for water hazards anything higher than the bottom of the windshield is pretty much pointless.

 

You'd be surprised what a computerized vehicle will drive through, I drove my 05 impala police car through water so deep it was coming up the windshield as I drove, how the car did not die idk guess I kept the right speed to keep an air pocket under the hood, this was in a flood few years back wading in it was about chest deep

I look at that location and think going through big puddles in rain at speed that location is a perfect scoop to suck in water coming from the wheel well

I have been stuck headlights deep in my rover but forded deeper, it will do it, all the dielectric grease packed in the harness connectors helps a lot I am sure

 

Its in front of the wheel well but I was thinking of pre-moisture filter on it. The opening is 4 inches wide which seems a bit big to me

 

I was thinking about this (1) installed about 1 1/2 or 2 inches in front of the opening with three or four rods/bolts for support.



Aside from the obvious hell about the transformer thing, is there any reason not to install it that way?

 

No reason it can't go there, now if you drive in freezing rain and snow the snorkel can ice shut, mine did last winter , chipped it off and turned it facing rear

 

I'll be in Houston most of next year and any trip north will be nautical anyway so I should not have that problem. 7 years in Boston was enough full-time winters for me for awhile..