As said above - Don't touch the plastic drain tap
- they snap.
Undo the bolt at the top, in the centre of the filter head, it goes down through the sedimenter and tightens into the drain bowl, sandwiching the sedimenter between the two.
The seals are the same as those supplied with a CAV 296 filter - it's cheaper to buy a cheapo pattern 296 Diesel Filter and use the seals from that, than to buy just the seals from Land Rover (no surprise there then
)
It's not just a hollow filter case - it's a SEDIMENTER - which is an inverted cone, which forces heavier crap (including water) to SEDIMENT out of the lighter Diesel fuel.
Don't bypass it, it's there for a reason - when you open it up and see the gunk and ****e that it's captured, you'll understand why it's there - AND NEEDED!!!
As for leaking air into the fuel line
- so will any component of the fuel system, if left un-maintained and neglected
.