"Flying at < 500ft At those hieghts in the event of an engine failure would you have sufficient time to turn into wind and succesfully enter an auto. ?"
That wouldn't enter my mind for even the slightest consideration if forced down low through stress of weather to remain visual with terrain. After >10,000 engine operating hours and never having one spit the dummy, I would be far more concerned at executing my best option plan to remain visual below 500ft rather than decisions being influenced to keep as much height below me in the (very unlikely) event of engine failure.
And as for my thoughts on scud running, if you've been caught out in bad weather with no landing options, rather than going lower and lower and risk hitting something, there comes a point where I say bugger this and climb up into it, to a height where I know I'm not going to hit anything. It's a horrible choice but I'd rather be in the gloop at a safe height in a VFR helicopter, rather than risk flying into the ground or an unseen obstacle, burning up fuel with nowhere else to go.
On those few ocassions where I have screwed up, even descending through 10,000ft of cloud in a VFR helicopter is possible if you know exactly where you are, and you can end up over water where more often than not you have a couple of hundred feet of cloud base to play with, then fly back towards the coast visually.
I don't advocate flying in cloud in VFR helicopters, and I don't advocate scud running and flying into something either. But being human, sometimes you do screw up, and having an otherwise undesireable Plan B to fall back on can be lifesaving.
Note: said VFR helicopter above was at least equipped with an attitude reference.