I found this...granted I have had the car 6 months and it's never been in.

1st pic shows what seems to be either an explosion of goop or maybe someone sprayed some type of grease in there? Any ideas?

I thought maybe (since my clutch does squeak a bit) someone tried to lube it.

The other piece is a spring that attaches to the top of the clutch pedal and then to underneath the dash. Buch of coils in it are messed up, but what's the purpose?

So do I care about either?

 

looks like white lithium grease. your guess is probably correct, it was applied to stop squeak at the clutch power spring. Teflon spray may work better, less messy.

think the other spring is the return spring, which helps clutch depression.

 

Well I actually left the spring disconnected today. Maybe I am imagining but it seems like I can drive it more smoothly now.
It has a cm stage 3 clutch in it.

Is this the spring I've read about people taking out?

 

that's the clutch I'm using too.

Confusing cos they call them both "springs". No that's not the one.

There are owners that remove the 'clutch power spring' - that's the one covered in the "goop". Supposed to give the pedal more feel by allowing the operator to bare full resistance on depression of pedal.

The other spring is a 'return spring'. When the clutch hydraulics are working properly, doubt you'd feel it making a difference. I'm guessing it's only useful in the case of pump-bleeding the clutch. But that's just my guess.