It could be the temp sensor doing it. You should get inside the ebox and unplug it anyway as they are known to be problematic. While you're inside there do a test on the coil too. The primary winding which is the small bullet connector wires coming from the coil are unplugged and the test probes from your multimeter go as one test lead on one wire, the other lead on the other and set the meter to the lowest resistance value it offers unless it's an auto ranging meter. It should be around 80-105 ohms of resistance. If it's a lot higher then the primary winding is breaking down internally which means it's time to be replaced. If that passes the test then put one probe in one spark plug boot and the other in the other plug boot and set the test meter for around the 5K setting and test. It should be somewhere in the 3.5-4.7K ohms range, if it's a lot higher then the coil is toast. I have found when the coil is failing it will do what I call Lawnboy running lol. If you have any experience with the old 2-stroke Lawboy lawnmowers they were quite often a rather hit n miss running condition meaning they weren't smooth and consistent, they would rev and pop and puke a little lol. When you get that kind of a chop chop pop pop sound profile that means it's running more often than not on one cylinder which is the secondary winding of the coil. My thoughts though are that the motor has well more than around 220 hours on it and it's due for a new crank. You're not able to tune it because the crank bearings are worn out and opening an air gap between the crank and crank seals allowing unregulated air into the system. By your description it sounds like it's lean so it could be sucking in air from somewhere it's not supposed to be. It's also possible but less likely that the CDI is pooched but I would just get a little bottle of oxygen and a hose with torch tip from say Harbor Freight, set it up and open the oxygen valve a little then apply the oxygen to the crank seal on the rear (PTO) to see if the engine revs up on its own. If not, try that around the base of the carb, gaskets on the intake and the base gasket on the engine. If it revs up at all right at the area you're applying air to then you know you have an air leak and it's time for at least that area to have new gaskets for that area installed or if you're capable, an engine refresh and all new gaskets. Applying the oxygen though on as many gaskets and seals from the bottom of the carb and down is going to be the easiest test you can do if you suspect it is an air leak. BY your details, carb adjustments didn't change anything...then you have an air leak somewhere. Until you get the air leaks sealed, no amount of carb adjusting will have any real effect on it. It will just continue to run like it's hitting a rev limiter.
