gauges

i bought a 2001 nissan xterra 4x4 3.3v6 with 106,00 miles. i do paper routes. alot of idle driving. when idling, sometimes i will lose all gauges which are needle gauges and the led crystal odometer. and along with that sometimes the car will not accelerate past like (i'm guessing cause i have no gauges, 20miles per hour) other times it will accelerate fine even though i have no gauges. sometimes it won't do it for a week sometimes every day. sometimes several times, sometimes once. if you shift it into neutral when it's doing it the engine will rev fine. but any way when you lose gauges for the most part the engine runs rough and won't accelerate. other than that it runs very good. i have changed oil regulary, changed the plugs, the cap , the rotor, the wires. it had a manifold leak which i also had fixed. it did (with the manifold leak) have antifreeze showing up on the plug boots in the block but that appears to be fixed. but i do still smell antifreeze but see no leaks. what dio you think the guage and run rough problem is? and what do you think the antifreeze smell is? thank you very much! Janell