u/Ok-Caterpillar-6723

First time poster. If I should have done something differently or if I can include more info, please lmk.

Still new to small engines, but I am very excited to have taken something that was broken and turned it back into a working machine.

Threw a new battery on (previous owner removed it) and cleaned the filthy carburetor, and it started. Ran kind of “poppy” on idle and died a few times, but eventually seemed to warm up. By the end of the night, I was in the highest gear doing laps around my house. I was unable to remove the adjustment screw in the carb, so maybe it is running rich or something. I am planning to replace it with a new carb to be safe. If it’s not that, could it just be running through the rest of the old gas in the system, and once it gets to the new gas (and stabil) that I put it it’ll work better? Still a rookie so would love any feedback or advice.