Thanks for chiming in guys.

I was very very careful with my use of the cleaner. What I did find was the contacts on the inside of the IAC were heavily coated with white debris (almost like a scale). I super gently and carefully cleaned the internal contacts, but did not test them -- I'm definitely going to order a new IAC because it looked pretty rough and I have lost confidence in the part after seeing the internals.

What I'm getting now is some surging while driving in certain rpm ranges (1100 - to 1600). My a/t light is also flashing intermittently (which I'm almost sure is a dirty switch issue which I will address tomorrow).

The high idle effect was immediate after reassembly.

R.