4WD shaft mod + 180 motor mount

[cdog4w]

Finally got it done. A bit gruelling and I still think there are one or two issues to work out, but it seems to work. Mostly there is still a bit too much rolling friction for my taste (w/o motor installer, just the friction of rolling with the shaft). I think that it is mostly the shaft alignment/leveling. It's mounted using the front shaft mount and ball bearing, but in 3 places. Theres a hole by the ESC switch (which I had to move) that I mounted the middle shaft bearing at, and the I made a new hole at the end right where the rear diff is for the rear bearing.

After running around in my small kitchen, it runs REALLY well. The 180 (stock HPI) got warm, but I don't think near as hot as the standard mini-x 4WD motor would have gotten. I tried touching the fets and they seemed a little warm too, but I hadn't checked the before so I'm not sure if that was abnormal. I'm a bit worried about the ESC running the 180 with the rolling friction. It ran fine for my testing (5 min or so), but I'm not really sure how it will hold up over time. I also got a bit of glitching (seems to happen in my kitchen).

So I've got some questions:
1. Should the stock ESC be able to handle the 180, taking into consideration the extra resistance from the shaft rolling friction?
2. From the wiring, could the locations of the various wires be causing any of the glitching? (hasn't really been a problem in the past, but the motor location/wires are new. I had the antenna fully extended)
3. Are there any early warning signs of the ESC getting into trouble so I can hopefully save it if this configuration turns out to be too much for it to handle?