So, I had a spill on my late 2011 macbook pro. I caught it quick and the first clean up got about 95% of the liquid off the logic board and inner case. I Prioritized the clean up areas that I thought would be most likely for a burn out and for that moment I left areas in the case and such alone just so I could boot back up and see what kind of damage it had. I let it sit a day and surprisingly it booted and ran just fine that I could tell.

Of course Apple Hardware test is nowehere to be found! I've tried everything with that.

I then went back in to clean the last remaining traces of dry liquid and double check the logic board.

To be short, the board needed more cleaning attention. In the process I needed to remove the heatsinks from the CPU and GPU. I'm not familiar with the GPU "thermal pads." What am I looking for when shopping for these pads? What kind of thickness does this set up take? Anyone familiar with these 13" guys and replacing these pads??? I didn't want remove that cap but I had to and now I have no idea what to buy; I assumed it was paste underneath. Thermal Paste is what I'm used to working with.

I get conflicting advise on this and kind find next to nothing online about this. Some say stick with the pad because of apples sensors and how they are calibrated. Some say no, always use paste; it's better. Some say the gap is to large for paste... IDK, I'm new to notebooks.

MacBook Pro (13-inch Late 2011), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)