Just a heads up as we all need these for the valve covers as well as the exhaust manifold if you do your CH gaskets. They sell them in a 1/4 and 3/8 drive, not sure about 1/2 inch. They claim they will work on 4pt or square head, 6 pt, 12 pt and external TORX and some funny ones I never heard of.

Sorry if this has already been mentioned but the search for 12 pt sockets does come up!

 

I never think about those until I am dirty and already have ten parts off of the engine, then I can't find a socket. Thanks for posting that.

 

That's the set I've used for a couple years now (usually the deep ones though) and I like them a lot. I've yet to find a male head bolt they won't work on. Of course, I've got the six sided impact sockets to break things loose, but those are great for low torque applications and any other kind of head.

 

Oh damn, I just realized that I have a set from sears that includes those *large case... was about 99 on sale)... except the set i have skips over 12mm and 15mm. WTF

 

Just to add to this thread. I bought this set just for the valve cover bolts. All my other sockets (even the 1/4" ones) were to fat to fit in the recess in the valve cover, but these were skinny enough to fit.
GearWrench 1/4 in. Drive Metric 12-Point Deep Socket Set (13-Piece)-80308 - The Home Depot

 

Where possible I tend to use 6 point impact sockets as they take more stress but also use German Mannesmann sockets as they have proved truly excellent. Snap On used to be good but the general opinion by professional users is the current Snap On tools are crap by previous standards.