Car idling funny/overheating?

[Riley]

Ok guys here's the deal. When at idle, my car tends to idle funny, sounding kinda like its camming. I have a few small holes in my heater hosing intake, i think thats what may be it. But when driving, my car will accelerate funny and sometimes shift like at 4,500 RPM even at WOT. It seems to me like i either have bad plugs/wires or maybe I need a new fuel filter? One time my car overheated all the way to redline and starting to stutter, then i could hear my intake increase tremendously for a few moments. at that time i would step on it a little and the car would barely move, just stutter, and then it just went back to normal. The temp went back to under 210. When driving the temp will go from 180 to 230 and then back again and it continues to do that while i drive.

[strange_trp]

put a 180 stat in there, then diagnose your engine coolant temp sensor first. if that checks out fine (and if you coolant level is where it should be) then consider EGR sticking, vacuum leak, or bad MAP. Bad MAF is also possible. not just those sensors but their CIRCUITS as well.
could be a vac leak anywhere.

sounds as if the pcm either 1: thinks the engine is colder than it really is, or 2: thinks the engine is under a greater load than it really is (EGR, MAF, MAP, and vac leaks can all do this.)

lean a/f mixture can also cause overheating. ck for proper fuel press and volume, ck for vac leaks where injectors enter intake manifold, check for proper operation of injectors...

my 1st would be ECT diag, then MAF/MAP/EGR/vac leak.
idles funny.... does it get smoother at higher rpm's?

[Riley]

UPDATE: OK guys I took strange_trp's advice and found myself my vacuum leak. Fixed that and now the car is smoother, but still sounds like its misfiring a bit. I havent changed the plugs/wires in about a year and a half now (maybe 30,000 miles) so I think I may just need a tune-up. But as far as how the car shifts, it still shifts either too early or too late. Sometimes when im driving normal the car will be like in 3rd gear, then like downshift to 2nd by itself and rise to like 3,000 RPM then fall again into 3rd. It feels kinda like when a torque converter finally locks up. Would changing my tranny fluid help eliminate my problem or is it something of much larger proportions like say my PCM?

[Riley]

ANOTHER UPDATE: I had a friend of mine autotap my car and we got some trouble codes that relate to my problems. First of all, let me let you all know that I am not familiar with autotap so ill give you all a brief description of what I understood.
1) I got a code that said somethign about MAP high voltage.
2) Transmission Component slip...this is what I had mentioned about my RPMs falling and rising...I havent changed my tranny fluid in I dont know how long. If I get it changed out, would this solve my problem or is my transmission in need of a rebuild?
3) When we tried to calculate if I was running either rich or lean it read -9.xx% and went close to zero while driving but still in the negatives. Does this mean I am running rich or lean? I dont have a catalytic converter and I have a high flow intake and a freeflowng exhaust. Is this causing my car to run rich?
Just to include this in the post, my car had absolutely no Knock retard nor did it misfire at all....however my idle is rough. Also, the previous owner of my car took out the TB screen...maybe he messed up my MAF sensor causing my car to run rich? The air intake temperature was also at 120* @ idle. Is this normal?
Anyhow, we cleared the codes and none have come up yet, but of course the problems are still there. Any advice?