While sitting on my (new to me) boat yesterday, trying to figure out how
and where to mount a sea water strainer, it occured to me that the hose
routing would be a lot cleaner if I connected stuff like this:

Intake-strainer-exchanger-pump-exhaust

Any problems I'm overlooking with this arrangement?

Also, I noticed the heat exchanger zinc (pencil) is mounted on the
bottom. This means that whenever I check the zinc, I'm going to
have water in the bilge. Any reason I can't have a new zinc nut
welded to the top? Oh, it's a horizontal heat exchanger.

Thanks,
NormB