I doubt you damaged your cpu. I have taken off the ihs on many amds, and haven't hurt one. I had a venice 3500 that had all 4 corners chipped, plus a little crack in the middle of it, and it still ran at 2.7 24/7.

Is there a fry's near you? They have the e4300 and a junk ecs board for $119 right now. I'm tempted to get one myself, but I have enough for now and will wait until the q6600 goes below $300. I know it costs to change, but in f@h you will about double your output from the opty. When I had my 170 running at 2.9ghz, it would be about 17-18 hours per wu. My e6600 at 3.4ghz, would do them in about 7hours.