Carpokes Porsche Forum

I'm currently in the middle of my first belt replacement exercise on a 944 S2. There's a number of these triple square/XZN screws on the car, in particular the cam bearing caps and cam gear.
Can these be replaced with ordinary external hex screws? Or even external hex screws with a flange built in to give a circular even force, the same as the triple square screws (these look as if they have a washer under them but it's part of the head).
The triple squares are hard to come by in this far flung country (NZ), and, with all due respect to Porsche, the splines can too easily get chewed.
Any thoughts on this please?

Check the thickness of the bolt head. Porsche used the triple square in tight spaces due to it's thin head. If there's room for a bolt with a normal bolt head, go for it.
Also, there are some cheap tools out there that will strip the head if you're not careful. It's worth it to spend the extra money for quality tools.

Yes you can replace them, but you'll need to find the "low" head allen key bolts if you want.
They exist in Torx as well.

Thank you. Was wanting to be sure there wasn't some obscure engineering reason for them.
Agreed on the good tools, I can't stand the cheap and nasty. I've been using Stahlwille sockets to minimise stripping after cleaning out the heads of the screws.