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One thing I did notice while running the Dr. Hess diagnostic, the higher the RPM's (and higher voltage output around 14.6), the warmer the regulator got. At Idle (around 13.6 volts), the regulator felt cooler. Makes sense and is just an observation.
Sounds as if it's doing its job as designed! It is dumping the surplus electrical energy as heat. While moving the temperature of it will be lower, thanks to air flow. Sometimes it doesn't pay to get too inquisitive!
Hard to tell, but I wouldn't do it. However, the worst that will happen is that a $150 regulator will fail. If it fails in the most common mode, you get no charging of the battery, and you get a dead battery. In the other, but less likely failure mode, you get unregulated voltage on the battery and all the electronics. That can be ugly.
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