Unclesyd,
With all due respect, it doesn't sound like your repair efforts were too successful. You state you had 2 or 3 break and you had 2 or 3 break again. Welding of grey iron is never a good idea. You can recast it, but you can never achieve a weld simialr to what you would get welding a similar joint made from steel. I know, I've heard every story about cast iron welding with SMAW. You can do it, but the mechanical properties won't be for squat! I have been the cast iron repair business for over 20 years, if there was a good way to do it, it would be in our repetoir of tricks.
I'm sorry if I failed to adequately describe the cracking in this piece. The cracks initiated (in my opinion) from a point on a diameter outside the bolt circle and progressed axialy (parallel with bore of the bolt holes) to a diameter smaller than the bolt circle.
Anyway, the part that I am working with is not a steam header. This particular piece is approximately 7 inches thick at the bolt circle. It is just one part of a rotating piece of equipment.
Thanks for the imput,
Tommy