To be fair, you're the only "thief" here that I'm aware of, so that makes you THE thief - general or no!

Besides, I'm no longer in any branch of the service, so rank just doesn't mean anything to me anymore.
And so far, to the OP, 3 different tests have been suggested and a number of different things to check. 3 votes for a compression test, and I suggested a leak down type test and a coolant pressure test if you're concerned you have a coolant leak as bad as what you've led me to believe, which require different tools. Timing requires a timing light and should probably be the first thing to check and confirm. Then, tear the front of the engine down and confirm that the timing chain is indeed correctly installed. The last thing to check would be to see about your head gasket. As Mike said, it's highly unlikely unless there's something you've not let us in on. I'm sure, from what was described, it was an error on your part during the assembly process that has caused the engine to run like

vs the catastrophic failure of something. That's not saying a catastrophic failure wasn't caused by incorrect installation though, but a head gasket wouldn't be at or near the top of the list.
Now, having said all of that, you said you ran your engine hotter than 230* - how hot did it get? Do you have an aftermarket temperature gauge installed to be able to say? And how long was it ran at that higher temp?