I have just helped a friend save his Beta 50 that was flooded with salt water.

The initial indication of trouble came, when his fully charged starter battery could not start the engine. On checking the oil, it was found to be a grey colour,(emulsified oil).

The first, and most important job, was to find out why the engine was full of water. We found that the siphon break breather pipe was completely blocked. Once the blockage was cleared with a wire, and flushed with high presuure fresh water, we could attend to the engine.

On the recommendation of the Malaysian Beta agent, we proceeded as follows:

First we pumped out all the contaminated oil. It is not possible to remove all the oil with the standard oil pump, so we used a small hand pump with a plastic tube down the dipstick hole, and this removed the last 250ml of oil, after the standard pump had lost suction.

We then put in a 75/25 mixture of oil and diesel, held the stop lever down and turned the engine over with the starter motor,for 30 seconds,( but did not start the engine).This mixture was then pumped out.

The same oil and diesel mixture was then put in again, and this time the engine started and run at idle speed for 1 minute, and then pumped out. This was done twice.

Then straight oil was put into the engine, and it was started and run at 1200rpm for 5 minutes, and then pumped out. This was repeated 5 times, increasing the run time by 5 minutes each, untill the oil removed was  clear. We then changed the oil filter, and put in  new oil. The plan is to do another oil and filter change after about 15 to 20 hrs, and then revert to the normal service intervals.

This was another lesson in the importance of regular checks on the siphon break. Fortunately this happened in harbour, where there was access to lots of oil. Had it happened at sea, on passage, the result would have been very expensive damage.