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First of all, my most sincere thanks for the replies and suggestions!
To schumicat and Targalid, I'll give the pb blaster, a punch and hammer a try (though, there is almost no room to swing anything). There does appear to be few tenths of a millimeter or so of play between the thermostat and studs; I'll try to use this, but am fearful of damaging the studs. I also have acetone (which I intend to use to clean the area before actually removing the thermostat -- this may be more effective in reaching and softening the O-ring).
To manbridge 74, you are absolutely correct that I don't have room to pry both sides, in fact I can't reach the "other" side at all without removing the airbox. I appreciate the limitations of prying one side only, but that's pretty much all I have now. My concern with the torch was potential damage to hoses and wire bundles nearby.
To LubeMaster77, the car is US.
I'm also considering making a pry tool out of rebar or a long allen wrench that I'll grind down and harden after fabrication. This would be a short "L" shaped wedge that I can rotate along the short axis of the "L", rather than back from the tip. As it is, using the prybar pictured, I estimate that I applied a lifting force on the lip of at least 350 pounds. With a rotational pry that I fabricate, I may be able to increase this to 900 or more.
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