Sorry if I'm late to the party in knowing about this if it has been public knowledge, but I cut open a Champ XL PH2867XL recently and accidently dropped the internal filter on the floor. Much to my surprise the metal endcap quite literally popped off revealing that the actual filter endcap is just a mix of what looked like hardened glue smoothed out over a fiber endcap that was holding the filter media in place. I have a Royal Purple 10-2867 that I just got done using today and am letting drain, I might cut that one open tomorrow and see if I can get the endcap to pop off like with the Champ XL. On other metal endcap can filters I've cut open, ie Fram Ultra or Titanium, the metal endcaps were integral to the actual construction of the filter unit and the media as well as the wire backing was directly attached to the metal endcap.