PLEASE HELP ME FIGURE OUT TEMP SENSOR/THERMOSTAT/OTHER ISSUE

What is your question?

I have the following symptoms: 1) Check engine light on 2) After a few miles, temperature gauge maxes out and warning light comes on, but no matter what there are no signs of overheating 3) Vehicle acceleration drops dramatically. Once I stop it may take about 30 seconds to get back up to 40mph or so. 4) No hot air from heater 5) Sludge in coolant tank I have very little money and can't afford an pricey diagnosis. I desperately need an idea of what's the problem may LIKELY be cause this has been going on too long and it's killing me. THANK YOU!