Give me a large enough lever and I can move the world. You're on the right track. That gasket with the Honda seal will be tough as heck to get apart. There are designated "break points" I believe if you look. I'll look under my hood later on and try to find them again.
-BS2KT

 

It often helps to smack the side of the head with a rubber mallet. Honda heads use small dowel pins to locate the head to the block. These are pretty tight in there. The gasket itself is metal and doesn't have the adhesion problems associated with older composite style gaskets.

Oh, and its always preferable to leave the intake manifold on when removing the head. Its a lot easier to pull the manifold off once the head is removed, and it does make a good grab handle.

UL

 

Have you tried giving it a "reach around"?

 

thanks for the input guys, i'll let you know how it goes!

 

Leave the intake manifold on as other people have said.
Whats holding the head is the dowel pins (I think there
are two of them one on each side of the head, at least
that's what B-series heads are), w/ the manifold on, you
can pull the head off much easier.