94 Camry Strange idle issue

Hello all,
I have a 94 camry v6 (1mz) with 168000 miles on it. It’s been giving me fits recently as I’m trying to diagnose a high idle issue i’ve been having. It got so bad that the idle was up to 1800-2000 at start and 1500 when warmed up. I took it in for a diagnostics which told me IACV, ok great. I bought a new Toyota OEM valve, installed no problems, idle is now lower, but not within specs. After idle relearn procedure it rests at about 11-1200rpm warm, but here’s the thing:
If I warm it up, kill it, and immediately restart it, the engine idle behaves as I would imagine to be normal (surges at start then immediately lowers to ~800. After ~30secs (stopwatch confirmed) the idle jumps straight back up to 11-1200 and stays there until I kill it/restart it. It behaves almost like I’m turning the A/C on as far as how the engine sounds when it happens.
On a related note, the A/C circuit which controls the clutch activation has never worked, when I originally pressed A/C button, the engine would idle-up correctly but no compressor. By manually activating the relay, I can get the clutch to activate. So turning my a/c on involves manually closing the relay and simultaneously pressing a/c button for idle-up
Originally the car would idle much closer to specs (around 850-900rpm) but would regularly cycle up/down about 200rpm (900-1100) about every 10secs. It no longer does that but now idles constant 1200. I noticed when changing IACV that the intake has a TON of carbon buildup seemingly focused around EGR inlet in manifold plenum. Fuel pressure test checks out OK and manifold vacuum is within specs and doesn’t change when the idle jumps. The idle control actuator doesn’t noticeably move/change when the idle jumps either.

Known problems: Charcoal canister is bad/clogged, Cam position sensor has oil seemingly leaking through the connector. Oil was pooled up inside the connector(I cleaned it out and it’s starting to collect again; it’s not coming from the valve cover gasket, as is commonly the case, because it’s new and there’s no oil anywhere else but inside connector)
I am going to take EGR valve off and clean out to see if that helps/changes anything.

Other issues(unknown if related): the torque converter will occasionally act up by cycling lock/unlock at constant highway speed and engine load, Trans was rebuilt about 5000 miles ago (converter never locked up at all prior to rebuild so I imagine the cause of this symptom was there but not manifested)

Questions: What should I focus on to get the idle taken care of (first and hopefully it will be related/also solve the converter issue)? Are there any other tests I should do to figure it out? (Note: computer was damaged in the past and rebuilt. Fixing the issues I sent it in for but has since failed to trip a code for a O2 sensor which was bad enough to bring gas mileage down 7mpg, so I don’t trust it to show codes for bad components) Should I consider having the TPS evaluated with a real-time scanner as I have checked resistance and is within specs?
Thank you all for any info, it is very much appreciated as I have been having trouble getting to class because of all of this.