I seem to remeber someone saying that the early 1700 heads were not very good
is this true and why?
Because ive got an 1800 engine without heads and a complete 1700 so I thought about pulling the heads of and fitting to the 1800
marcel:thumb

Well the valves on a 1700 head are slightly smaller than on an 1800 head, but not as small as they are on a 2-litre head. Not enough to worry about.

Theoretically your 1800 cylinders should fit into the 1700 head too, but check first.

All these old Type 4 heads have a weakness in the valve seats, which have a tendency to drop out. You may have that problem with an old set of 1700s. The fix is to either buy new heads (only 2-litre heads are available new) or have your old heads re-seated. Fractionally larger seats are used and high-pressure fitted to stop them dropping out later.

But otherwise they should be fine.