I would have thought some sort of adjusment or its something to do with an emissions setting and its too lean to catch on.
You could try it with the air cleaner off as well.
This is an issue with a lot of the chinese copies of the smaller engines, they are just too lean air wise and starting you cant pull enough through the filter.
What sort of filter is it, id assume paper cartrige, but if its oiled foam it might be over oiled.
Ether starting agents are bad news.
This could be a good question for the HPE dealer you bought it off.
