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Timberbunny,
I'm not exactly sure what it is that you're trying to do with this potentiometer, with regards to your xmod, but it sounds as if for WHATEVER your trying to do, you have something connected wrong.
How exactly do you have this potentiometer wired to the cells and the xmod? It sounds like you are shorting your cells through the pot, when you dial in a very low resistance between two leads of the pot.
Get back to me with a brief description(schematic prefereably), and I'll get to the bottom of it.

Oh, I see. Then you need a low-ohm, high power potentiometer. You don't want too much voltage dropped at the pot, and deprive your motors of current, so you need a pot that will be a short when you have the pot turned all the way right, or all the way left, but in between you are controlling a ratio of power that is displaced between your two motors for steering control. Correct?

So if you have a 5K ohm pot, you are dropping way too much voltage at the pot when it is near the middle, for the motors to get enough current to actuate. Then when you have the pot turned all the way left, you must have something shorting for the heat to become apparant. If I understand the circuit correctly, if the pot is turned all the way, you should be shorting the cells to the motor in series. So the motor current is flowing through the pot. The pot might not have a power rating that will handle this. Check your data sheet. Go to digikey to find a better alternative for your potentiometer. Look for power rating(if that even is a rating for potentiometers). Also look for the amount of turns it takes for the pot to go from zero to max ohmage. And look for the max ohmage rating, of course. My guess is that you'd want at least 10W, 5 or 10 ohm. Don't get too high of ohmage or your motors will starve. Good luck.

Go to digikey and type in part number RES10RE-ND

The 3 elements to concentrate on are motor, FET's, cells. Analyzing EVERY component will not be very effective in modifying performance. It would be a good learning experience though.

What I would do is get yourself a good multimeter(Fluke) and monitor different points in the circuit, while you do various commands with the remote. Carefully monitor every pin of the FET's while throttling in forward and reverse. Refer to circuit diagrams that have been scattered throughout various threads, or other forums, and see if you can deduce what is going on in the circuit. Then, once you have a good idea of how it works, you can devise ways to modify it. Have fun.