Keep at it! These can be wonderful old cars to drive,but due to their rarity,parts and more importantly,good service for them can be hard to find-there just were not enough of them made that your average tech maybe has only worked on a few in his entire career- even at the infiniti dealer,most of the techs there who worked on these old Q when new have retired or moved on.Use this site as a reference,there is not much you are going to run into that has not been discussed in detail over the years- and much of the really good discussions happened years ago,when there were many more experienced Q owners posting and sharing tips with one another......its all available to you if you use the search feature and study the topics that pertain to your circumstances.

yeah I currently planned out the next 30 days of doing everything in the MA section of the FSM that I haven't done already and maintenance Schedule 1 and 2. the search button has been very helpful especially Q45Tech's posts.

Glad to hear that you got the idle issue fixed - and that you're going back and reading the old Q45Tech posts.

thanks....what is that large mysterious hose that isn't connected to anything above the sway bar on the passenger side next to the exhaust manifolds and is shaped at a 90 degree angle?

by your description,it is most likely the air conditioning condensate drain.......should drip cold water when a/c is running,especially if humid.

ok thanks

turns out my dad had a pair of valve cover gaskets in the basement the whole time...ugh, about to go in and change them

I just changed the valve cover gaskets again and I went to start it up and as soon as I turned on my headlights, the the black part of the dash that goes around the spedo and RPM gauge kept on blinking, i'm talking about the "background" of the dash

with no CEL, but I still pulled codes and got code 11 and 34, ugh dam knock sensors....only 6,000 miles old, but what part of the Valve cover job would make the CAS go bad??? and if it was faulty wouldn't that prevent my Q from even starting...yet alone be able to drive around..

The background trim is probably just failing... it happened on my old Q. Check your connections at the CAS, maybe you bumped them during the valve gasket install?

connections are fine, I suddenly got a high idle earlier today, engine sounded different, you can really hear the engine roar when I accelerate, its my first time using 5w-30 oil in it so that must be it, but i'm surprised I have no CEL light while driving.

It is not the oil! Check fan clutch for proper operation,if locked up permanently {failure mode} you will hear the engine roar {actually it is fan noise}

fan clutch is fine. I checked it when changing the belts