Chevrolet Repair: 1999 Chevy Camaro V6, head gasket leak, chevy camaro

Question
My camaro has had a problem with drying out and building up gunky greasy deposits in the radiator and will start overheating every few months if i don't stay on top of flushing it, and usually when i flush it out with a prestone cleaner it will usually stop the overheating with the exception of once  about 6 mos. ago when I had to change the thermostat. I also could hear a little fluttering sound while idling if standing outside the car toward the rear which i assume is the beginning of an exhaust leak>>> i say that as a little history. Now. the problem I'm currently having is i noticed at a light the the temp gauge would go a little over normal, so i flushed out the radiator. over the next week the overheating became closer to the "red zone." I changed the thermostat and that didn't help. now i noticed a higher overtone from the exhaust when accelerating along with a loss of power and overheating. after the car cooled down i was looking at it and started it. when i revved up the engine a couple times sharply it blew out vapor along with what looked like torn apart fiber flurries.
1.)could it be the catalytic converter?
2.)can the cc cause overheating?
3.) if not what can i chk next
thank u in advance! layth

Answer
Hi Layth... yes it could be converter causing overheat and loss of power problem.... the problem with the cooling system gunking up could be a number of things... check intake gaskets for a cooling leak, try flushing and replacing antifreeze with the duocool antifreeze (the red stuff) the vapor could be a head gasket leak, quick check would be to install rad pressure gauge and see if rad builds pressure really fast. that would mean compression leaking into cooling system.... hope this helps