Thanks Bert and Startech!
Before messing with it today I pulled the plug to check it out. Wet and black again after the 3-5 minutes of lightly running it last night. Wiped it off and reinstalled.
Gave it a cold start (one thing I read about that I’ve NEVER done is holding the throttle open all the way while starting), and it fired right up on the second pull. First was choke on and it sputtered. Second was choke off and it fired up.
Once warmed, it still ran fine but I could tell it wasn’t putting out full power at throttle, and was sluggish to ramp up.
Youtubed a bit on where the low and high carb adjustments were on this thing (oddly/thankfully I didn’t have those little plastic caps down blocking the screws), so I went about adjusting those.
Adjusting the high SIGNIFICANTLY improved things and it is running like the good old days at full throttle. I also tweaked the low but that wasn’t off nearly as much.
My hope is that the high was so off on the rich side, and that this will cure my wet black plug issue. Will pull it shortly once it’s cool. I ran it for about 10 min to hopefully burn off any richness on the plug from the initial startup and carb adjusting.
It also ramps up in throttle super quick now. Seems like at least 30% more top end power than I was getting before the adjustments. Noticeably kicks back in the hand, from the air forcing out the tube.
Will report back at least once about how the plug looks and if I’m all good. If it is still rich, I guess I’ll go down the road of tearing open the carb. I just would be shocked if it is, with how strong it’s running now.