I do have my settings a little rich. Saying I should lean it out a little? I wouldn't think enough to bog, but I guess you never know.
What is a bog? My definition is a lean condition where the throttle response is flat, the engine often quits running b/c it runs out of fuel to burn, but my definition of this word doesn't mean you're not experiencing a rich condition.
If it's already too lean, then of course leaning it out further will make the symptoms worse. Remember, it's not desirable to run a 2-stroke lean, it's best to err on the rich side and turn it back towards lean, stopping at the point where the engine just begins to run correctly. By the description of bog, it's hard to know if it's too lean or too rich except if too lean you will likely find it stalls occasionally or often when it falls on it's face. If too rich, it just takes a few seconds to clear out excess fuel, while doing this it will probably four-stroke some, and run rough but not stall. Four-stroking sounds like an engine miss, when a 2-stroke is reaching a point of being too rich(always start on the rich side), it will begin to miss, firing every other stroke, which is where the term four-stroking comes from. When tuning a two stroke it's important to keep an adequate balance of fuel in the crankcase so that when the throttle is opened, that fuel in the crankcase is swept up into the cylinder, acting like an accelerator pump would(you have no accelerator pump on your carbs, crankcase fuel balance is your accelerator pump). If too much fuel and it can't burn it all and just kind of chugs along without quitting, if too little and there's nothing to burn as the throttle is cracked open, the engine will stop running. During idle, the idle mixture passage feeds fuel and there is a slight delay time when the throttle is first cracked open before the transition pilot ports begin flowing, thus a careful balance of fuel lying in the crankcase (a puddle of fuel+oil) is necessary to compensate for the throttle pilot transition. Too much fuel doesn't hurt anything really, but it makes for sluggish throttle response and burning sensation for the eyes, with excess pollution.
The worse thing you can do to a 2-stroke is run it too lean though, a lean bog leads to a potential lack of lubrication b/c fuel carries oil throughout the crankcase and cylinders, thus if there's a lack of fuel there's also a lack of lubrication.
An overly rich motor loads up on fuel and cannot burn the excess, so when you shut it down the excess fuel remaining inside the crankcase and cylinders will likely make it harder than normal to restart while hot without opening the throttle a good ways, maybe 50% or more. So if your hot restart is improved by opening the throttle 50%, then I'd say it's probably too rich in the low throttle position, idle mixture screw controls this, set as per factory spec or slightly lower by maybe 1/8 turn and see if your symptom improves. If it improves then try the factory setting and see if driveability is acceptable under all conditions.
A quick test I use to see if an engine is bogging too lean would be to richen it up briefly by pulling the choke while it's stumbling/bogging, if it's too lean, then it should immediately catch with a brief pull on the choke.
Often if an engine is too rich as your idling along at no wake speeds, you will be able to detect unusual amounts of unburned fuel wafting around, it may even be enough to burn your eyes slightly. Soot and dark color on your plug center electrode is an indicator your mixture is too rich, the plug electrode isn't hot enough to burn away the fuel film. If I put a brand-new set of plugs in my motor and run it for 30minutes across the lake at 30mph, the insulators will have a yellow tinge on them, not brown or dark brown. Once my plugs have more than 10hrs on them, the insulator color settles out to a cardboard brown and I can get two seasons on them without fouling from soot/oil deposits, including fogging between use. When they foul, I clean them to see if I can squeeze another season from them b/c I pride myself on being a cheapskate, LOL
Anyway, bogging is a somewhat subjective term, when I have a lean condition I call it bogging, or a lean-bog, describing a condition where the engine actually runs out of fuel with nothing to burn, thus it falls on it's face and quits as the throttle is cracked open. If too rich, I call it four-stroking b/c the engine still runs, doesn't stall, but misses and runs rough until the excess fuel clears out. Soot quickly forms on the plug insulators during a rich condition due to the partially burned fuel. This soot can be burned off once the plugs come up to temperature, this is how plugs are self-cleaning. If too rich, the plugs will tend to foul more often than usual.
I probably repeated myself once or twice trying to explain.....
