If you suspect that the MAF is the source of the problems you're having then see if you can temporarily swap one with a friend, this should confirm that it's faulty. The next step then is to buy a new one, not cheap but it's got to be done if you want you're car running right. The MAF can be cleaned but how long it will be until it fails again.........who knows, only sure fire way to resolve your prob's is to replace with new. As mentioned before though, the temp sensors can cause similar running issues, and you mention that the temp gauge is not reaching it's normal reading, which means that either the new one you put in is faulty, or the old one was dead or dying.