Quark fried, blown capacitor...

[BrianG]

Thermal epoxy is easily broken. Just put the whole ESC in the freezer for about 20 min, then pry between the case and the slab. Should pop right off.

Can you get solid caps of the same voltage and capacitance as the low-ESR electrolytics in there right now? If you do replace them, see if you can get three in there instead of two. So, if there are currently two 330uF caps in there right now, get three 220uF caps. Because the capacity is smaller, they shouldn't be as big. Using more caps of the same overall rating has a better transient response and you aren't workin each one as hard.