Mending cast iron?

my old man welded up some marine engine head and block castings that cracked. it involved some very expensive cast iron rods, a pair of bellows, a BBQ, 5 bags of charcoal, a fire blanket, 2 welding aprons, 2 pairs of gloves and a couple of buckets of water. basically he got the block hot as fuck in the big BBQ which was near red hot due to the bellows, gas welded the cracks whilst my mum kept him doused with water then threw the fire blanket over it and a bit more charcoal and left it to cool for a day.

And some 9 months later you were born.

:)