A little short on capacity is normal. They should only take in the full amount if you're deep-cycling them.

120-130 degrees is as hot as you want to see your nimh batteries get. I have a temp sensor on my Ice and set it to 120 degree cutoff. It rarely cuts before the delta peak does.

In stock racing we time the battery charging or re-peak the packs to make them hot right before running for extra punch. On a mod motor I would start with them cool as they'll heat up on their own with the added current draw.