Well I decided to take the thing completely apart and clean and inspect everything. It looks great inside, like new! I also took the carb apart and cleaned it and blew it out with compressed air - if there was anything in there it is gone now for sure! The seals on the needles looked good as did the carb neck seal.

I might be crazy but it seemed to me one of the head screws was loose and came out way too easy. In fact all of them were not as tight as every other engine I have taken apart. Also, the fuel intake/hsn housing was loose enough that I was able to remove it by hand.

Just for fun I sealed the whole thing up with Lucky 7 sealer when I was done. Too late to try it out but hopefully there will be some improvement, or this thing gets the vice treatment! LOL