you are better off breaking it then going at it with a chisel...a chisel will mess up the case....this may sound dumb but are you sure you got all the bolts out???...I would just keep hitting it all around the sides with the rubber mallet eventually it will loosen...

 

Notice the blurry hands. Wailin' to beat the band... That mallet is his favorite tool.

 

Easiest method, which won't cause damage, is after you screw a couple bolts in a few turns to keep the cover from popping off, take an old pocketknife blade and lay the sharp side right along the gasket and gently tap on it with a plastic mallet or even the handle of a large screwdriver. You want to drive the blade edge gently into the gasket, wedging the cover off. Works everytime and as long as the blade edge is parallel with the seam it won't hurt anything. No need to hit it with a mallet which will probably cause dents or depressions in the soft aluminum of the cover.

Oh yeah, make sure you got all the bolts out except the 2 you have in just a few turns.

 

Dead blow hammer with a towel.

 

I also use the razor blade method and worked on mine and my dads with no problems. Only thing is I didn't keep 2 bolts in loose so it was a bit messy. Good call on keeping 2 bolts loose in there.

 

"Wail" on it like someone said, but make sure you use a dead blow hammer! It won't cause damage. I really had to swing at it!

 

After reading all the responses this is the one that is correct and makes sense.
I know as I did my own cam replacement and this was the way I removed my cam cover. Oh ya it is stuck on tight.

 

yup. i just needed a bigger hammer. thanks again guys.

 

so, the wear pad on the stock tensioner looks fine (51k-miles). now i need to decide what to do with it next.

a) leave it alone, but risk a broken spring when i'm 1,000 miles from home.
b) install the screaming eagle kit with hyd tensioners.
c) go with a gear drive (and new cams).

any thoughts?

 

You can not just slap gear drive in there, and expect it to be fine, you must check run out of the crank, and if that is good then you can go with gear drive, the SE kit is more forgiving.