I have a P0101 error. My temp Guage quits when it misfires any correlation?

What is your question?

4.3L w/267000 The driving symptoms match the P0101 error but it also randomly pings like a mother at low speeds. When it does stumble when driving my temp Guage needle goes to 0 and it won't read for 2-5 min then it just comes back to life. But when it does it reads half of what it should be. Any chance it's the Guage sending unit and not the mass air flow sensor?