Check engine light and overheating
 

Yesterday morning I started my car and thought I heard a gurgling sound and I dismissed it. In hindsight, I know it was air in my coolant system. (It was 2:30am and wasn't thinking clearly. My car has never had any mechanical problems)
While at a red light yesterday afternoon, I noticed my check engine light on. Light turned green and when I started to accelerate, the car jerked and shuttered. I idled off the road and into a parking lot with no jerkiness from the engine. Just as I turned off the engine I noticed that my temp gauge was maxed out. It all happened within 30 second.
So obviously I have some issues with my car. I know it may be too early to tell but is there permanent damage to the engine?
Was that jerkiness something the engine does to make you pull over? Or did I just throw the rods into my pistons and blow the timing belt on my flux capacitor?! :)
Clearly, I know nothing about engines. But I got pretty handy using forums to fix my Honda Civic a few times.
Thanks for the help.

Any coolant leaks? Turn your heat on to max and do you have hot air? If you don't have hot air, that means there's air in your system. Turn on your AC and see if your radiator fans are spinning. I just had to replace my radiator fans recently with mishimoto's because they died and were causing my car to overheat.

OK. I guess I'm jumping the gun but I'm aware that I have a coolant issue. My question is the jerky movement my car did when I attempted to accelerate. Is that by design when the car overheats? While I idled into the parking lot, there was no jerkiness.

Lol - No, not by design. I mean, flying down the highway at 75mph and your car starts jerking because its low on coolant? This is not an optimal situation.

Although probably pretty effective...

Although quite scary I had the same problem when my car overheated, will definitely get your attention I for sure thought I might have blown a head gasket or something worst I was reassured the Z is pretty hardy,mine was a fin had broke off the water pump which sits inside of the engine, had it replace maybe set me back 550-600.00 hopefully this isn't your problem might just be air trapped in your radiator I would start there, there's a funnel you can get that's great with bleeding the air out but be prepared it could take a while and takes some patience.