6- vs 12-point bolts

[tom h]

What do you guys think of the appearance of 6 vs 12 point nuts & bolts?

I am intending to slowly detail my '87 with Stainless fasteners in the non-critical applications (exhaust, intake, valve covers, etc). Suspension and high stress fasteners will remain OEM steel.

One decision is whether the new SS fasteners should be 6- or 12-point heads.

Sometimes I find myself liking the look of 12-point, but I vacillate.

Any practical downsides of 12-point, such as more likely to round off heads?

[dgreen1069]

You are less likely to strip a 12 point bolt with a 12 point socket than a 6 point bolt with a 6 point socket. If you can choose either, go with the 12's.

[ijames]

I think the 12 point heads look "higher tech", whatever that means . However, I've used a lot of them on ultra high vacuum research systems where we were frequently taking things apart and putting them back together, and I rounded the heads off of a good number of them. These were stainless steel in fine thread 5/16 and 1/4" size (bolt diameter and wrench size), and anywhere from six to 20 bolts per flange. Can't give an exact number but somewhere around 5-10 cycles and some of them would start to make me nervous (and get tossed), while some would still look new. On a race motor that sees frequent teardowns I'd stay with 6 point heads; on a street/show motor that will probably never come back apart the 12 point ones would look good.