Both brands are good and both have quality engines. If you stick with yamaha you will not have to change your guages, with suzuki you will, adding to the overall price by a decent amount, new tachs, fuel management, etc. First and foremost you need to buy from a service center you trust and mechanic you plan to sue and who might be fairly local. Both engines are good wuality so the selling point needs to be the ease of maintenace and parts for the future. I have 225 Yamaha 4 strokes on the same hull as you and love them, I have 550 hours on mine, bought them with 140hours last spring. Only maintenance we've done is one dealer tune mid season since we had a 2 week down time while we were away, and our 100 hour oil changes and lowe runit oil changes. They have been flawless and are quiet. The only draw back to four strokes for you is the location of your scuppers....you may have to have them moved up, many pre 2002 265's have lower scuppers and the extra weight of a 4 stroke may require them to be moved higher, and they can be. My boat was one of the last with the original hull, but was built with 4 stroke power and had the scuppers moved higher by the factory. The newer hull used the location I have, I know others have moved them up. It really depends how comfortable you feel with where they are....since you trailer and the boat does not stay in to often it may not effect you as much as long as the deck drains. The boat should never get water in it except when you use the washdown...I've backed down on fish at 6kts with no water in the cockpit so chances are you might be ok but I'm just giving you a heads up of something you may or may not encounter as some have.
As you know, I owned an HPDI on my other boat and loved it, but honestly the HPDI and Yamaha 4 stroke are 2 different beasts and the 4 stroke has a great reputation, especially the F225. I would not let your current engine discourage you. I feel bad for the luck you'vbe had, it seems thta from day one nothing went right. The 200 HPDI was one of the greatest engines Yamaha built but it seems like to me the previous owner never took good care of them and left you with the mess. I think his lack of service and care has lead to your misfourtune. I wonder if your engines ever got the proper Yamaha computer updates. My HPDI was the second repower engine in my state and from the first shipment of them...the ones that needed updates but I had them done and never had an issue, newer models never needed them.
The suzuki DF200 and 225 weigh 580lbs, the Yamaha is 583 so weight is negligible between the two models. I've been impressed with some of the suzuki tests but there has never been a good comparison between the two models....most boat tests aren't reliable anyways, there are too many variables that testers do not keep the same when comparing engines so it is hard to compare apples to apples. The suzuki does have a slightly larger displacement though, might give it better hole shot, although my F225's are pretty nimble on that model. Honestly I really do not think you can go wrong with either brand.
