Paul,
I am on my second season with my 250hp zuke pushing my 23' DV center console with factory hard top and foward seating model. I have owned five 4-stroke suzuki's ( 3 250's, a 70hp and a 25hp ) and one 2-stroke suzuki. The only problem I ever had was with my 2-stroke, when in 1998 she blew a cylinder at 78 hrs. I am fortunate to have a "Diamond Service Dealer" who had me up and running in 6 days with no cost to me when the 2-stroke blew.
As far as the 4-strokes go I have had zero problems with any of the 5 i've owned. No gauges, ( I have the plain old analog Suzuki style) or accessories, powerhead, FI or pumps etc,etc.
One advantage I see over Yammie's is the service. On the 250hp there is no belt adjustment to be made ,( My 70hp did require a cam adjustment per the maintenance sched at around 25 hrs ) and the service requirements are very simple. I do the maint myself and my dealer keeps records of the items I purchase for warranty issues. My oil filter's are $9.00, Suzuki engine oil is sold to me in bulk form for $8.00 per quart from the dealer and the in-line fuel filter, $12.00, only gets changed out every 400 hrs per the maint sched. The cost of the Zuzuki brand lower unit oil is around $11.00 per tube and the zinc anodes are replaced as neccessary . I also replace my Racor fuel filter once per season and thats really a cost every owner will have. NKG spark plugs run $2.00 a piece from my dealer and I change them out once a year also. $5.95 for a can of CRC to spray the engine down annually and I'm ready for a full season of boating. When I compare this to the cost of my buddy's Yamaha engine service, I'm saving money. Apparently the oil filter alone for his engine is $25.00.
Now as far as performance goes, we all know that will change with prop size,engine mounting and load conditions. My boat is set up with the engine mounted all the way down ( I'm thinking of raising the motor not to increase performance but to get the cowling higher above the water-you know the whole bracket issue and stern wake when you come off plane), a 15"x17" SS prop, 80-100 gallons of fuel, 4 adults, 4 sets of scuba gear, 8 steel scuba tanks and 4 small aluminum "pony bottle" tanks, Oxygen kit, tools,safety gear bag,ice,water and a few more misc items and the boat will cruise at 24 knots at 4500 RPM and burns 9.8-10.2 GPH as measured by a Navman fuel flow guage. Loaded I can bank on 2.0 MPG + ( technically a little better than that if you do the math ).
If i'm cruising with just the family onboard, same fuel load since I fuel up when returning from a dive trip, the performance really shines. I back off to 4200 RPM's, push up to 26kts or so and the fuel flow is around 8.2-8.8 GPH. ( ALL THESE SPEEDS ARE GPS AND CAN VARY WITH TIDE AND WIND ) Loaded I will say the boat takes a few seconds more to plane out than when not loaded.To compensate I put the trim tabs down and the torque that the engine produces, along with the larger diameter prop,pushes the boat right onto plane,even in ruff seas. Wide open the boat averages 39kts, 41kts is the highest I've seen, turning 6200 RPM's.
One thing I noticed is looking at all of Suzukis performance specs posted on thier website is that regardless of the boat, the engine burns ,within a gallon or so, the same for all the RPM's giving in the test reports.
As far as which is better, Yammie or Zuke, I think all things considered, their about the same. The annual maint cost may be a little higher on the Yammie and it weighs, I think, a whopping one pound more than a Zuke (for the 250hp model). If you go with a Suzuki I dont think you'll be disappointed. our local Sea Tow just got over 5000 hrs on a pair of Zuke 140's on a twin-vee and we all know that they get run hard in service behind the yellow boats (At least in N.C.)
Good like and feel free to PM me with any other questions
