I have given CONSIDERABLE thought to this, even drew up my own designs and let me tell you what I came up with.
1. The screw on cap. Thats the killer right there because its got a gasket. Being round and threaded thats easy enough to do, but then you run into issues with the inlet/outlet set up. Because its a cylindrical filter, it makes it tough.
2. The internal screen is directional. It only goes in one way and so you have to have the filter oriented correctly to the coolant flow. In addition to that, there is the tray thing that traps larger stuff (they call it the sediment trap I believe) that isnt trapped by the filter screen itself. This trap makes it so you dont have to remove the entire filter to clean out all the gunk. Otherwise you would have to have some way to clean out the heavier stuff that settled to the bottom of the filter.
3. You could make it square in shape and that would take care of the inlet/outlet issues (sealing against a flat surface rather than a curved one) but then you would have issues with trying to recreate the cap that screws down and seals that way.
I totally believe it could be done with plumbing supplies, but you would be introducing so many other sealing surfaces, I wonder how reliable it would be. You just have three place to seal now and Ive been using mine for a while now, probably more than a year and no leaks.
As well, the screen is in a V type shape so that it gets trapped and is harder to knock loose by the coolant flow. There is also two different screens with the filter. One course filter screen and one fine screen.
Im not saying it cant be done, Im just saying I have spent a great deal of time in the Lowes plumbing section trying to figure out just how to do it. You also have to keep in mind the different hose sizes as well, though with our cars all you'd have. to have is 1-1/4". Ive tried but Im still open to ideas and suggestions. I could be entirely possible Ive missed or overlooked something.
Originally Posted by SyntheticShield
