Do Beta Engines Rust?

[Tam Lin]

I was sitting in the bar at the sailing club yesterday (as you do) and the subject under discussion was engines. One guy said that he wouldn't have a Beta engine as after a few years they rusted away.
Is there any truth in this? What does the panel think?

 

[Paddingtonbear]

I would not have a Beta full stop, mentally dear for spares and servicing items IMHO

 

[uxb]

Anything metal has the potential to rust....

As for spares being expensive, like all boatie spares, you can find the automotive equivalent of most engine parts in yer local Halfords for a LOT less money. On a previous boat I used Nissan Micra oil filters which were identical to the expensive 3GM30 ones.

 

[CAPTAIN FANTASTIC]

I have had Volvos, Yanmars and BMCs, they all seem to rust due to the marine environment, however, the BMC was with the least rust by far, only because it was leaking oil from almost everywhere.

 

[macd]

I would not have a Beta full stop, mentally dear for spares and servicing items IMHO

Absurd. Service items are generic and cheap. Much of the rest of the engine your local tractor supplier can provide. Even from Beta: raw water pump, complete, £120, basic gearbox around £600: go compare that with Volvo or Yanmar.

As to "they rust away": equally nonsensical exaggeration.

"Anything metal will rust": no, I think that's just iron.

 

[doug748]

I was sitting in the bar at the sailing club yesterday (as you do) and the subject under discussion was engines. One guy said that he wouldn't have a Beta engine as after a few years they rusted away.
Is there any truth in this? What does the panel think?

Do bears sit in the woods?

 

[vyv_cox]

I believe that Beta marine engines are Kubota based, as are many other conversions. These are one of the most ubiquitous engines world-wide, used in agriculture, construction, building and a host of other duties. Any propensity they have for rusting away would surely have been discovered by now?

On a more specific note, Betas are indirectly cooled, and thus have antifreeze circulating internally, with rust inhibitors that prevent corrosion. Externally, if the engine is sluiced with seawater it will undoubtedly rust, as will any other engine. Keep the engine compartment clean and dry and any engine will last for many years.

 

[Hydrozoan]

Absurd. Service items are generic and cheap. Much of the rest of the engine your local tractor supplier can provide. Even from Beta: raw water pump, complete, £120, basic gearbox around £600: go compare that with Volvo or Yanmar.

As to "they rust away": equally nonsensical exaggeration.

"Anything metal will rust": no, I think that's just iron.

What do I think? I think you should try to grab a bar stool next to Macd next time

I have a 19 year old Beta. I don't have specific experience of other makes, but Beta's prices seem reasonable for the service items I have bought from them - and I buy from them in part because I have also found their technical support team very helpful. Sure, the paint has come away in places (touch up with Vauxhall Carmen Red, IIRC) and the exhaust elbow has been replaced twice - neither of which is any surprise to me given the age - but I simply don't recognise 'rusting away'.

 

[KAM]

The paint started to fall off mine. I was advised to use the above Vauxhall paint but it reacted with the existing paint and made it much worse. If I had kept the engine it would have been pretty corroded by now.

 

[macd]

The paint started to fall off mine. I was advised to use the above Vauxhall paint but it reacted with the existing paint and made it much worse. If I had kept the engine it would have been pretty corroded by now.

Mine cleaned up almost like new after nine years. I've not heard the Vauxhall red thing: mine originally arrived from the factory with a touch-up pot of Beta red which I never had cause to use.
If the paint falls off it should go from Beta red to Kubota blue rather than primal rust, because that's the colour they arrive with at Beta. Like several other manufacturers, they just blow the lot over, hoses and all, with 'their' colour.

 

[WoodyP]

Beta take the p on prices but no worse than any other marine engine supplier. For example a replacement key is going on for £20, the generic key is £1.50. Filters similar markup.
However as previously said, if you know what part you want all can be sourced much more reasonably.
I have had a Beta engine for 10 years, and have had to touch up the bearers but the engine still looks good, runs well and is economical on fuel.

 

[uxb]

"Anything metal will rust": no, I think that's just iron.

I'm so sorry, to a simple person like me iron, metal and steel are all lumps of stuff that rust. Unless its stainless steel. But then chinese stainless steel does rust, is it different to real stainless steel? You sound dead clever so should know.

 

[macd]

I'm so sorry, to a simple person like me iron, metal and steel are all lumps of stuff that rust. Unless its stainless steel. But then chinese stainless steel does rust, is it different to real stainless steel? You sound dead clever so should know.

I'm sorry that you must have to spend endless hours polishing rust off the wife's wedding ring when she's not looking.

'Stainless steel' is about as specific as 'fruit', old fruit: there's all sorts. All contain 10% or more of chromium, usually along with other metals such as nickel, manganese, molybdenum and several others. Some are magnetic (usually the cheaper grades), some virtually not. Some will develop surface rust, whether made in China or Sheffield. Some usually won't, but can do in the marine environment through galvanic action if in proximity to other similar, but not quite identical, stainless steels: fasteners, swage terminals, welds and so on.

Of course the quality most valued by you well be stainlessness, but the steel requires other qualities, too: hardness, lack of brittleness, ductility, weldability and so on, which will vary with its constituents and treatment. It is, after all, usually used structurally, and it's no use admiring something really, really shiny as it fractures and falls off the boat.
Nothing containing no iron will rust. Ever. But there is a simple English word which descibes comparable effects with other metals. It's 'corrode'.

 

[uxb]

I'm sorry that you must have to spend endless hours polishing rust off the wife's wedding ring when she's not looking.

It's a curtain ring..and when it starts to show 'corrosion' I swap it from one out the large bag of 'em I got off flea bay. Romance isn't dead in this house.

 

[doug748]

The schoolboy error is to not swap the rings, for as they corrode they would give the Missus a green finger. Trouble would ensue.

Top work uxb.

 

[macd]

With resourcefulness like that, uxb, I'd be surprised if any boat problem was beyond you.

 

[Hydrozoan]

Beta take the p on prices but no worse than any other marine engine supplier. For example a replacement key is going on for £20, the generic key is £1.50. Filters similar markup.
However as previously said, if you know what part you want all can be sourced much more reasonably.
I have had a Beta engine for 10 years, and have had to touch up the bearers but the engine still looks good, runs well and is economical on fuel.

Yes, I got spare keys locally - but I think it makes sense for both Beta and me to do simple key cutting that way. Are filters really marked up 'similarly' - i.e. about 13-fold on your key figures? But as you say, people can buy generics and may not need to use Beta's technical back-up as I have done, and we agree that with due care the engines last just fine - the question raised by the OP.

I have no other connection with Beta; I just couldn't accept 'rust away'. As Vyv Cox says, bilge conditions are key - so I'd probably be responding similarly to a 'rust away' generalisation about any make I happened to have (and by chance there is an ongoing thread on how to touch up a Volvo).

As we’ve drifted from rust to corrosion, wives and rings, I’ll end on a relevant experience. When the stop button failed after we'd raised sail, Mrs Hydrozoan discouraged me from stopping the engine by other means, correctly thinking we might be unable to restart it. Later investigation showed the control panel feed (from the starter motor) had corroded unseen within its heatshrink (verdigris not rust, of course ). No blame to Beta after so many years , but two thoughts: (i) use a reasonable tug when checking connections and (ii) use a noble metal ring terminal for the most important one 