89 Escort 1.9L stalls - won't restart right away

A friend's 1989 Escort 1.9L TBI has been stalling lately. It has stalled 
twice while being driven, once by her and once by her daughter. I 
haven't yet been able to determine if the car was moving or at a stop 
when it stalled. It has stalled two or three times at idle, once while I 
was there checking it out. I immediately tested the coil wire for spark 
and there was bright blue strong spark. I think it might be the idle air 
control valve, but wanted to run this by some experienced minds.

There is one odd quirk. When I remove a manifold vacuum plug, the idle 
speed picks up significantly. This is telling me that the system is 
starved for air. Having said that, I must confess that I have no 
experience in dealing with fuel injection. I know that this would be 
bizarre behavior for a carbureted system.

Another thing that doesn't compute is that the plugs are not fouled with 
dry black sooty deposits that would intake a super rich mix.

I have done some googling and a clogged idle air control valve and a 
leaking PCV hose seem to be likely culprits to explain the stalling. I 
am leaving in a minute to check out both. Will re****t on the results

-- 

"Forget it, Jake. It's the Internet."