Somewhere in the FAQ section is an explanation of a whooshing sound under the hood as being a cat converter clogged up and this would explain your loss of upper end power as well as those other drivability problems. The clanging could be the guts of the cat rattling around but since you're also having problems with the shifter you might have a motor mount broken and maybe it's on account of that you are getting the noise and the shifter problems.
Karl
