Bluebird 530 (Honda) will surge then die sometimes after starting

[ostrichsak]

Anyone know what my issue could be? It seems to happen if it's been sitting for a while and I start it up. It fires up first pull every time w/o hesitation and roars to life. If it's fine, I will do the yard w/o a single hiccup and everything will be fine. If it acts up about a minute after starting it it will start to surge the throttle on it's own. Starts somewhat slowly and then increases in repetition until the engine finally dies. If I attempt to restart right away it won't start. If I let it set for a couple minutes it will fire right up and complete the yard w/o a single hiccup.

This is quite frustrating because it seems to happen at the worst times and it's slowing down on productivity. I would think that it's the carb but I'm but super knowledgeable on the carbs that these Honda motors use. I tried to see if there was a fuel filter and I'm not seeing anything for this model so I guess it doesn't have a fuel filter? My local shop suggested I run premium gas instead of the regular I was running and it didn't seem to help so I don't think it was an octane issue.

I need to fix this w/o paying someone tons of money.

Thanks for the help.