yes a very risky recipe indeed. most of the 360 components are not able to handle that heat and can melt, or just die quitely. its definatly a last resort and will most likely create many problems down the road.
the e74 error is very tricky to diagnose what the actual problem is as it could little thing to do with anything really.
also, putting thermal compound on the ram chips under the GPU heatsink isnt the best idea as the heatsink isnt putting enough pressure on the ram. the thermal compound is just smothering the ram and most likely making them hotter. the best thing to do is to find some thermal pads that will fit snuggly between the ram and the heatsink
