I have been reading up on these Courage engines a little more. It looks like this is the Kohler low cost engine for sure and you get what you pay for. Valvetrain issues seem to be a common issue and I guess the plastic parts to the governor tend to fail and cause revving issues like I am having. Besides running fast from this and being LOUD from the muffler blowing off, the mower runs better than it did before all this mess began. I suspect many of my issues were from the valve lash becoming off as the adjusters came loose. It now runs with plenty of power for sure, especially when it is revving during mowing.
Conor
Conor