So I took a weed burner and cooked the spark arrestor. Got it red hot for 10 min or so. Let it cool, shot it with some high heat BBQ paint and re installed it. Should there be diminished performance with the spark arrestor on vs off?  Took it for a spin and the bike definitely pulls better with the cleaned spark arrestor, but not as good as with it off. 

 I have some boyesen reeds coming in the mail, and I was going to clean the carb and just the float level. Anything else?
 

A two stroke needs some back pressure.  Unrestricting the exhaust from stock will often reduce power.  (It should run worse without the muffler unless the muffler is clogged)

You'll get mixed opinions but I would not install Boyesen reeds unless you need to.  You'll get a neat boost in low speed throttle response that might make it "feel" better but in my experience they kill HP.  But you're not racing so they might be fine.  

Got it. So the bike runs worse with the spark arrestor, so maybe I pull and put it in a fire. Its been so dry here I'll need to wait for a bit to do that. Unless of course I use the weed burner again and juat cook it for longer. I cooked it till it stopped smoking and cooked it some more. Got quite a bit of ash out of it. Can I hurt it ya think with the weed burner? Maybe just cook it hotter and longer?

If you have a leaf blower could blow in the muffler with that when you have is red hot with the weed burner. Could do similar with the main exhaust but has to be hot enough maybe not red hot because of packing inside but hot enough to get the carbon burning then the blowing will keep it burning. Just be super careful where the sparks go please. Did you look in the end where the tail muffler engages in the main chamber. If the total exhaust is guaranteed clean then at least you can eliminate that if the problem persists.