Thanks for the reply. The head was tight, it had a shim also.

Can you describe how to check for air leaks? If you mean making sure the carb is seated tight on it's O-ring, then it is tight. Regarding the fuel system, I have an inline Du-Bro fuel filter between the tank and carb. It hasn't had much run time on it but I will open it and check. But when priming with choking the carb, i did see fuel flow freely into the carb.

Also, am confused as to why I saw lots of blue smoke out of the exhaust but it was still lean? trying to understand how that could have happened.