How dangerous is water to a cold air intake?

I have a 1999 Ford Ranger that I recently bought and it has pretty bad gas mileage and I'd like to fix that and the power behind the engine. Where I live we get pretty significant rain fall and some small puddles that you end up having to drive through. The last think I want to do is hydro lock my engine. Are heavy rain and small puddles actually a danger for hydro locking a CAI? Even if I were to buy one of the waterproof jackets?

Most aftermarket CAIs are vulnerable to hydrolock, but some have drains. If it were mine I would get a complete intake from a pull-it-yourself yard and make it stock again.

I have a friend who is active in modding his cars. He had a Scion and he put a K&N intake on it. One day he went through water that was deeper than he thought and hydrolocked the engine, hundreds of miles from home. He sold the car as-is to a woman who did not replace the intake when she replaced the engine, and a year later she hydrolocked it as well. No fun at all.

You aren't going to fix mileage or power with a fake cold air induction setup.

Plugs, wires, general tuneup. IF cold air intakes worked, you'd have to use more gas to keep the mixture right, so your net gain would be zero.

You get power or economy, not both. Choose. There's a reason the 40+ MPG vehicles are all sub 4000lbs with small engines.