Strangely.....today when starting it and it doing the usual turn over forever then fire off, I noticed a very rich fuel smell coming from the exhaust. Sounds opposite of what you said loopy about the seals and a lean mix. Not that you are wrong because what you are saying makes perfect sense. I opened the rear access and made a 1/4 turn in on the needle adjustment on the carb. After that, the rest of the afternoon, she started up immediately upon hitting the throttle and required no choke even on a cold start. I am going to check it again in the a m and see what it does. Would a weak ignitor cause a hard starting scenario? How about a failing coil? Just trying to look at all angles. It almost seems like some sort of vapor lock thing happening......
I haven't looked under the cover on the fan side to inspect that seal and my oil pump is not working, so I am mixing at approx 100:1.
thanks