Idle and Throttle Response problems

I have a 74 cj5 with a 360 in it. I play in the water and whenever it even touches water it wants to kill itself. The only thing that I can do to keep it alive is step on the gas. High gears and low rpms are the problem. It just doesn't have the power it did when I bought it. I buried it once pretty deep and had to get the water out of the fuel tank and float bowl. But the next day it ran like a champ and had no problems. Came back two weeks later and the engine shook the piss out of me at idle. I have replaced the spark plugs, wires, cap and rotor. It has a 2bbl carb on it. Need some help on why it is doing what it is doing. Is the timming off? I tried turning the distributor but it did the same thing every position it was in. Is it not getting enough spark? A 360 should be able to move it witjout stepping on the gas. I need some serious imput because I realy don't know what to do. Maybe its the carburator or the battery (doesn't have enough juice)? Also as a side question does anyone have a way to do a easy home made snorkle that would either go through the dash or out the side?

 

I like to seal the dist with that dilectric grease/silicone. That stuff you use for outdoor electrical connections such as coaxial cable connections etc. It stays soft like grease. If you seal up all the possible holes, gaps and possible leaks, your dist. will not be able to breath any more so it should be checked from time to time for corrosion inside. I have used it on the plug boots and dist end of the wires. It seals them good, but is somewhat slippery so the wires can come off quite a bit easier. That has never been a problem for me though. Just another thought.

 

First, remove the fuel line from the carb, turn over the engine(or run the electric fuel pump) while running fuel into a glass jar. This will determine if you have water in the gas. Even a little will foul the carb. Not to mention sand or whatever in the tank.
Second, replace the fuel filter, just because it's cheap.
Third, Remove the plug wires and ohm them out with a multimeter. If you find one or more with very high resistance, switch them out.
Next, Check the advance weights in the distributor, are they full of crud or mud or whatever. Then look at the cap, rotor and points(electronic), check the voltage to the coil, do you have a good 12 plus volts. You can test the coil also, it could be saturated too. 80% of the time, the ignition system is the problem when the engine is being a pain. Then the carb or fuel delivery system. There use to be these races on tv a number of years ago from Florida. These guys would drive these Jeeps through the "ssippi" hole. Thats over the top of the steering wheel. (I use to enjoy those swamp buggies, but Tiger makes more money for the networks so the races disappeared.) There ignitions where completely covered in 100% silicone caulk. The cheapest snorkle I've seen was made of Schedule 40 PVC and a couple "Fernco" couplers. With a K & N filter on top. Around 50 bucks(mostly the K&N). Let us know if you find the bug.