I was starting to have some heat issues in my custom loop. At first it was one of the 90TI's starting to creep into the 70's. I RMA'd the card  and after flushing and more flushing I moved to leak testing and all was well. It was time to power up. Fired (bad choice of words) up and loaded CPUZ and two runs of GPUZ 
 
.
 
I've been quite fond of EK products for a while now, loved the aesthetics, the bench score numbers, just never expected to receive a top drawer product from them that contained unwanted accessories. Turns out the accessories were bits of cotton cloth and TIM. They were wedged firmly between the inserts and jet plate. I was unaware EK uses TIM to hold the two pieces of the plastic insert together during assembly.I now have this picture in my mind of some WW2 munitions factory revitalized into a somewhat modern day machine shop churning out watercooling parts for our multi-thousand dollar machines.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
I was starting to have heat issues on my custom loop with a 5960 and two 980TI Hydro coppers and containing a new EK Monoblock. I RMA'd the Hydrocopper and after flushing and more flushing I installed the new RMA'd card. It was time to power up. So I fired ( bad choice of words) it up and loaded CPUZ and two iterations of GPUZ to follow the card temps. Watching in some disbelief I saw the CPU climbing along with the new RMA card I placed in slot one. As the temps crossed 55C the RMA card fizzled , sparked and died and I quickly shut the rig down. Sitting there in shock and disbelief I decided I needed some answers. The temp issues originasted with the new EK Monoblock, but hey, this is EK, top of the heap. Since the RMA card was beyond resuscitation I draind the system once again then I decided to do surgery on the Monoblock. Here is what I found lodged in the jet plates 
 

 
I have always been a fan of EK. Their aesthetics, their benchmarks, etc. What I just never expected to find were the undisclosed accessories included with the product. I think future purchases will require my own tear down and rebuild as this bit of theatrics has been going on for approximately two weeks now. You may wish yourself to do a thourough inspection of any EK product you find yourself purchasing in the future. You may find these little bits of destruction inside waiting to bite you in the butt.
 
                                                                                                                                                    
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Yeah.. I have had 12 blocks from EK so far, and not a single one had TIM inside the block or cotton. They use the pressure from the screws to hold everything in place, and nothing else.

If that stuff grew after install and wasn't visible from the beginning, then it came from somewhere else.

EK actually uses foam for shipping, and the only TIM they send is in a tube, not on the block. Did you purchase this directly from them, or was it from somewhere else?