I flushed and changed the coolant in my 2001 motor I have in a lotus 7. I flushed the system with water twice and the idle was normal 1k rpm. When i drained it the 3rd time and added coolant and bleed the air best I could the revs are bouncing from 1500-2000 or steady at 2000 rpm. I know this is commonly an idle control valve issue and I cleaned all the carbon out of it. I feel like it’s sonethibg else causing the irregular idle since it idled fine before changing the coolant. Prior to changing coolant I had the intake Manafold off to get powder coated. I doubt that had anything to do with it since it idled correct during the coolant flushes.

yes replaced the gasket. Funny thing is I used the original gasket when I flushed it and it was leaking coolant a few drops onto the transmission but it idled fine when it was leaking. Replaced the gasket with another oem.