Loss of power after overheat....

I have an '88 5 spd. Its all stock (except for the air freshener). About 3 days ago I was headed to school, and noticed that there was a significant loss in power. Then I realized my engine was over heating. I figured I was low on coolant since the heater wasn't blowing hot. I pulled into a parking lot, waited about 15 minutes, and put about 1 1/2 gallons of water in it. There was no water anywhere on the interior, and it wasn't blowing white smoke. Ever since then it has been running ok, but there is still a bigtime power loss. It has not overheated again. If I am at a dead stop, and punch it in 1st, it will be sluggish up until around 3500rpm (Just a guess, I have no tach.) At around 3500 the power will come back and it will feel as strong as before the overheat. It is like this in all gears. Anyone know what this could be?

Thanks.

Check the engine oil and see if it looks like chocolate milkshake. If it does, you've probably blown the head gasket. All the lost coolant must have gone somewhere and if it didn't leak from the outside, it must have leaked internally.
Another possibility is that the cap on the expansion reservoir has gone bad or the reservoir itself is cracked and the cooling system isn't holding pressure. If that's the case, the coolant would have boiled away leaving the system with too little coolant to prevent the engine from overheating. That can be bad news for the engine because it often leads to blown head gaskets or cracked heads.

Dr. Dyno said:

Check the engine oil and see if it looks like chocolate milkshake. If it does, you've probably blown the head gasket. All the lost coolant must have gone somewhere and if it didn't leak from the outside, it must have leaked internally.
Another possibility is that the cap on the expansion reservoir has gone bad or the reservoir itself is cracked and the cooling system isn't holding pressure. If that's the case, the coolant would have boiled away leaving the system with too little coolant to prevent the engine from overheating. That can be bad news for the engine because it often leads to blown head gaskets or cracked heads.

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You should also check the drain XXXX on the radiator as a possible leak. I over heated and found the coolent level low. It took 6 month to loose enough collent to over heat again. The only only place I could find and leak was the drain XXXX.

As Dr. Dyno already suggested, look for evidence of a head gasket problem. How hot did it get and how far did you drive it like that? My guess is that you may have gotten it hot enough to either detemper the piston rings, or thin out the oil enough that the cylinder walls are scored ... or both.

Run a compression check and post the results.