Re: cylinder head cover
They do tend to get stuck, after all it's been on there for a few years, eh?!
What you won't want to do is pry at it with a screwdriver. The thin blade will likely mar the sealing surfaces and we don't need that!
What I've used with success in the past is a 1"-2"-or-so-wide paint scraper blade. Not the real flexible or razor-blade type but something that would be stiff enough to have some prying power between the block and the cover.
Start at the top corner of the cover, gently tap the blade in with a plastic mallet or other suitable rapping tool, as soon as you get good purchase into the gasket it should start to pry up the cover.
Once the cover breaks loose, it should come right off. A careful application of gasket remover will help soften up that old, hard gasket, they can be a real bugger to scrape!
Wal-Mart sells a decent, wide razor-blade paint scraper that does a great job on these, around $2.
Don't know if you had a hard time getting the bolts out, but if you put a thin coating of Permatex #3 gasket dressing on the threads, they'll never stick.
If your new cover gasket has a shiny coating of gasket glue on it, you don't need to use any kind of gasket dressing on it.
Otherwise, use a thin coat of Permatex #3 on the outer part of the gasket. For the spark plug holes you can do the same. If the sealing surfaces around the center holes are pitted/eroded, use a very thin coating of Black or Hi-Temp Red RTV, or Loctite/Permatex 518 anaerobic sealer.
Check out the bolt holes in the cover for deposit buildup, very common to see that. Clean out with a drill bit slightly smaller than the holes.
HTH..............ed
