You may want to advance it a few degrees to pick up some torque

Which lifter, the first one at the front of the driver side or the second one from the front, where you checking the cam timing from?

Not really on either of those issues.. it could reduce some heat.. but on the heat I think you
have another issue.. it could be as simple as the pump not turning fast enough.. do you run
a shroud on the fan.. are the fan blades just in from the edge of the shroud

You need to use a solid lifter.. on the pulleys 1 to 1 isnt gonna cut it.. you need to get the pump speed up
those pulleys are more for racing than the street

I've had several timing sets like this one, Cloyes , that the upper cam gear was off a half a tooth, it would ailn straight up and down with any of the crank gear alignments marks. They were all off a half tooth
If yours are that way move the cam gear clockwise so the cam dot is to the left of the crank gear looking at it from the front
One tooth is right at 12 degrees so if you want use the 0 dot for no additional cam advance The reason being some of those timing stes have two camshaft degrees advance built in a nd some don't
Same thing on the cams on built in advance
Good luck, you should be able to feel the difference on getting the cam dial in and advanced
Let us know how it goes

i pulled it apart set it back at zero.
Next question, should my intake valve really be starting to open 30* before TDC?