Can a lean ratio of air/fuel on carb cause overheating?
My sons 110cc seaseng got hotter than hell one day and quit running.  It did restart right after but I had to keep the throttle up to continue it running. This worked until it would not stay running at all.  We pushed her home.After a battery charge to make sure that wasnt the problem and to cool her off, I started it up again.  The engine started but made a knocking or tick tick tick sound while idleing and running.  A friend suggested it could have been running too lean causing the over heat.  I got on the web and found a step by step way to properly adjust the air/fuel ratio and idle adjustment.
I changed the oil as well.  My brother, a seasoned auto mechanic, said I might have burnt the piston ring or something like that.  
I NEED SOME SUGGESTIONS PLEASE!
THANKS
Billy  

Billy,
Running a machine too lean can ABSOLUTELY cause overheating and engine failure. The first thing i would do would be pull the spark plug and check it. if the ceramic around the electrode is super white, it is a pretty good indicator it is lean. you may also want to do a compression or leak down test on this engine to further diagnose the damage that might have occurred.  

Can you post the step by step method or link to adjust the air/fuel ratio and idle adjustment.  I need to do the same as well.
tks
Brad