So, the cracked oil pick up boss was a fairly easy fix though it took all day to do it correctly. I used Muggy 77 rod and put a pass in to fill the crack and then made several passes over the boss to build it up to a stout thickness being carefull to peen it after every pass not welding more than an inch at a time. The rod is supposed to be more like cast iron in that it has a similar expansion/contraction rate.I felt very confident in the process as I have welded a few cast iron pieces in the past and this seemed to go rather well.The hardest part was that since I penetrated through the threads, running a tap through would just hang up on the weld. The only way I could figure to fix the threads was to use my Dremel tool with the thin wafer cutting discs and slice through the weld until I had good uniform threads. That took a while! After all was said and done, it was virtually perfect and I ran a 1/2" nipple into the boss and torqued it way down to check the integrity of the boss-it held just fine and I feel it'll be the last thing to go in my block.
If anyone has any questions as to how to repair a crack in cast, I'm not an expert but I've had some pretty good experiences with it and would like to share. The old oven methods don't always apply. Thanks again for hangin' with me. I'm almost done with organizing my shop and will be back at the body soon!