88 johnson 20 water jacket gasket removal

[temple1975]

I need to put my thermostat back into the head. I have a brand new gasket on the jacket now, but when I removed all of the bolts the jacket did not separate from the head. What is the best way to get the jacket off ? I am thinking about using a long scraper type razor to split the gasket down the middle and slowly work it off. Then i can re-clean both surfaces and put in a new gasket. Any better ideas or confirmation of this plan would be greatly appreciated. I tried to gently pry it off from the buzzer hole but it's on there pretty good.

Thanks

Brian