I didn't think about that. Yes it does bolt to the tanks, and you're right about them being wider than the core.

I've had the misfortune of blown head gaskets on a 5.0. It's not fun to replace them. Getting everything apart and back together isn't the hard part. Setting the head is the worst when my beer belly teeters on the car's fender and causes me to slam the head into the engine block! :O

I had planned to replace the water pump at the same time as the front cover gasket. I noticed a heavy duty water pump while searching prices. If that fits, I may spend the extra money on that also, but it will probably have to warm up before I try to do the front cover gasket.

I don't have a way to actually flush the engine, though. The best I can do is maybe run a gallon or two of water at a time through it and into a catch pan. Ordinarily to flush a cooling system I just run a garden hose into the radiator neck, turn it on and let the engine run for a while like that. Perhaps after the radiator is installed I could have it flushed out at a shop.

 

You might want to flush it at home as best you could before running that dirty coolant through your new radiator. Either way would work fine.

 

i installed a larger all brass/copper in my '94 only it was universal and i just drilled 2 holes in the top to match up to my fan shroud and have had no problems at all. I had previously done the swap with an aluminum radiator with plastic jugs and had run that combination for over a year until one of the plastic jugs cracked.