Use, Repair or Junk this Exhaust Manifold?

[wavegobbler]

I'm rebuilding an engine and trying to be reasonably thorough. My donor engine exhaust manifold has some small cracks right at the 'bridge' area where it connects to the exhaust pipe.

Use? A new gasket should seal this area, The gasket sits in the shoulder, the failing 'bridge' contains it. I would like it to last for at least 100,000 miles.

Repair? The casting is failing in this area, I have a TIG set up but adding material to a casting and re-shaping that area has too many red flags for me. Professional help?

Replace? ToyotaPartsDeal.com claims to have one for $166.51. I'm planning to replace many parts but can't afford to replace everything at Toyota prices.

[terrence]

When I rebuilt the motor in my van the exhaust manifold was all buggered up from someone using the wrong size gasket between the downpipe and the manifold and it just ate up the material on the manifold. I wire-wheeled and filed the surface down and put in the proper size gaskets and after 1000 miles no exhaust leaks. My theory is it made it 200k miles that bad it should go a few more with the proper gasket with a good seal to prevent more erosion/damage.

[wavegobbler]

Thanks for the product testing terrence. I'm leaning towards your route. Its not hard to replace the gaskets if a leak developed and I think it has enough integrity to hold together if its not leaking. Its also not a 'dead on the side of the road' problem.