One of the problems here of course is that of a relative newbie not wanting to spend big bucks on an engine that will most likely get trashed. This exact thing happened to me . I had an O.S. .40 with that $#@&*^% airbleed carb and essentially couldn't complete a flight. I finally gave up and bought a Super Tigre .40 and soloed in about a week. I'm not familiar with the new generation of O.S. bushed, single needle, lapped piston engines but it sounds like not much has changed. This won't solve your problem, but I think you need a better engine!