we had slapped in a 3s from a 2s on our C1 buggies and daayuuum did that motor get scorching hot on a 5-10min run. ...
That's a totally different issue!
First I don't believe that motor was lukewarm after a run on 2S, was it?
If you go from running a motor full speed most of the time at low voltage to run it full speed most of the time at a higher voltage the motor will run much warmer, yes.
In crawling you don't use full speed most of the time, but low speed. Then call on full speed for short periods of time.
Then the heat has no time to build up.
My motor is running just as cool on 2S as on 4S on a typical crawling run (give or take a few degrees).
... but also see below:
I think the common cause of overheating motors is overgearing. More voltage amplifies the problem.
Overload (caused by overgearing and/or generally high friction) is the main problem.
At load the current consumption goes up. Current consumption = heat development.
A 27T motor, with proper gearing, on 2S will heat up quite a bit when run continuously at full speed. (That's pretty much the definition of "proper gearing" for a racer. If it runs cool you use too little of the motor power and if it overheats you can't use it efficiently.)
A 50T motor on 3S, properly geared, will make the truck go just as fast, but with
less heat due to better efficiency!
That's why the Tekin ROC motors are rated for 4S while the Pro4 are only rated for 3S while essentially being the same motors. ROC are meant for crawlers and in that use won't overheat on 4S. The Pro4 racing motors are both less efficient (using lesser turn armatures) and are run more of the time at more throttle.