^^eeeee^^
i heard those little pads are a pain in the @$$ to get off once they're cooked on. also zalman says they have some sort of polymer that coats the hsf, and that's why they suggest you take it off and replace with as5 before you ever fire it up.
but anyways, high purity rubbing alcohol and coffee filters. make sure you get it all off the cpu. yep it's always advised to upgrade cooling before you overclock, you got what there...? a thousand dollar cpu? i guess you can probably swing for a better cooler, bro.
p.s. run superpi 32m and let me know what you get please.