smoking and bubbling noise

The temperature gauge relies on engine coolant around the sender to show you the engines temperature. If the coolant gets low the sending unit can only read the small amount of heat conducted through the materials it is made of. So the gauge may read fine but the engine burns up from the lack of coolant.

I would check the coolant level in the radiator, then run a pressure test on the cooling system because coolant normally does not just vanish. If it got hot enough that it is smoking you may already have damaged the engine to the point that it will need replacement. it needs to be tested some to determine what the issue is.