Thanks man!
It could be the cheap recoil mechanism, but it doesn't look like that's the problem. Maybe I can put some WD-40 on some points there (on the white plastic bits under the hood) to see what happens? I'm definitely going to check on rod knock, but I'm still waiting for the delivery of my brand new socket wrench set to access the inside of the engine.
Just wondering: I can move the flywheel/fan back and forth and up and down a bit; is this normal? Here's a video of it:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1t6cQz3CY6gxFN3_opFIGc0VhWrfLAl1X/view?usp=sharing
Thanks for helping me!