Edit: Disregard. You do have to bend the tabs back and remove more than you may think. I was trying to compare old to new which wasn't working, since old were so baked and cruddy... and the new were purple (Felpro kit). This is not fun, got one out in about 10 minutes without damaging vc, 5 more to go.

Got two new(used) valve covers since one was cracked, figured other may very well be.

Seems like the valve covers, clearly from different motors as one was poorly painted silver, were both driven to oblivion as oil is burnt and baked on the inside, and the spark plug tube gaskets were brittle as hell.

I took a flat head screw driver and pried them out, but this left little bits still in there that I'd have to chisel out.

I don't know if I'm doing it wrong though - should I have bent the tabs back to remove them? I don't know if me just man handling them with the screw driver and yanking out was the way to do it since they obviously left pieces behind.

Thanks, and happy Halloween (I'm drinking some liquor and prepping vc's for paint instead of partying )

I just used a small flathead to bend the tabs a bit, then started prying them out from the underside of the VC. Then I flipped the VC upright, stuck the flathead in the opening almost horizontally (so the screwdriver can seat at the very top of the rotten gasket), just kinda went around tapping with a small rubber mallet until they popped out. Wasn't too much trouble after I figured out the first one. Just be gentle.