yput some little plates inbetween thoes gaps insted of trying to fill them up with wire. if your not already.

 

I'm sure the only reason the welders didn't want to weld it is so that they wouldn't be liable for it breaking in half. Hope it turns out alright for you though.

 

weld it real hot and then let it cool in a bucket of sand.

 

Yeah you cant fill that in with wire without expecting it to crack, jon, cut some little pieces of exhaust pipe to fit in there. If you use a high heat setting and wire brush the cast iron before you weld, it should hold just fine... mine does

 

My O2 housing looks the same way, but my buddy adam managed to weld the piping to the cast. I dunno how stong or how long it'll last, but it passed the hammer test

 

mine did too paul

 

try to fill that gap with a smaller piece of metal, not just filler.

 

bring it to my house and I'll put a stealthmode "snakeskin" weld on it. I'll gaurantee it for life.