Drove through deep water with car now it Feels& sounds kinda crappy any suggestions?

I was in town the other day helping my fiancé file his taxes well. It started flooding & bc of the part of town we were in on the way back home I had no choice but to drive through some deep water. I d Say it maybe came up to the gas tank I'm not sure but it was really deep plus before I rolled up on it I got nervous & went to back up to dodge the water& I'm pretty sure I slung it into reverse before hitting the brakes but there was a truck behind me, it was raining really loud, and my back seat driver was ringing in my ear so.yea. Are there any suggestions on how I could possibly flush any water out that may have gotten into vital parts of my engine gas tank or whatever else may have been affected? It is making a very low pitched puttering noise that s hardly noticeable & the shifting feels a lil weird at times but it is a ford escape & I'm used to bigger motors so it always kindda feels weird to me. It's like driving a go

Once water gets into the motor, starting it is what does the damage. If you've been driving it since, the damage water in the cylinders may have caused has already happened and the residual water inside has burned off. What happens when you drive through deep water is it splashes up into the intake and gets inside the motor that way. Water won't compress so the rods receive damage when trying to turn the motor. It can go up the tailpile too but a running motor would keep it from getting very far up the pipe. If car didn't stall out, probably nothing wrong with it.

there could be electrical quirks from things getting wet that shouldn't have, but they may just end up resolving themselves when everything in there dries out.

Get a mechanic to inspect the engine.

If it runs after you went through the water, the water will be cleared out in some cases. What year of Escape? 2013+ with the Ecoboost engines? Or older? In any case, to ensure all water is gone, take out all of the spark plugs and turn the key and watch for water to shoot up out of the engine. If there's none, and it ran bad before, well, your engine may have permanent damage. If water does shoot up, keep cranking until you can see no more, put the spark plugs back in and fire it up. In any case, take it onto the highway, that way it has a chance to get nice and hot and evaporate water and clear it out. Before you do anything though, check oil and look for any white or creamy buildup on the dipstick, if there's, water got deep into the engine and you'll need to change oil. You better hope you didn't cost yourself an engine!