Think your thinking of Kseal etc. Irontite is a ceramic seal & for around £40 is worth a go over scrapping an engine block or even the whole car. Has good results for porous / cracked blocks.
This is what I have been reading. Not read anything yet about it potentially causing more problems, just that it has either been successful or not, and mostly success from the reading I've done. It was what the specialist suggested in the case of a cracked block as the only thing he has ever seen actually work.
I was gonna go for the full treatment, so the flush, ceramic, then all weather seal, costs around £90. Obviously no guarantees it will work, and I obviously don't expect it to be a permanent fix. But as I said earlier, I only need it to last through the winter, and I'll have had the use I need out the car. I have no intention of "bodging the motor to get rid of it dishonestly". The intention was always to start stripping the car in the spring.