Thanks guys, this is clearly a great community. I hope I'll be able to contribute in the future.

 

you might as well get the brass radiator cap since the black plastic one will eventually break while you are driving. the brass plug is only like $4.00 or so from rovahfarm.com. the black plastic one on my '96 recently cracked and separated where the threads meet the cap. caused a moment of panic as i searched for the source of puddle of green under the truck. went to check the cap and the cap part came off in my fingers and the threads stayed in the radiator.

 

I appreciate the tip, I found the source of the intermittent leak. I crawled under the truck with a flash light and looked beneath the expansion tank to find a seam is opening as the truck warms and shrinks when it cools off. I ordered an expansion tank, water pump, belt, thermostat and hoses. I do have a question about the lower rad hose, mine looks like a T, radiator to water pump with a smaller hose going to the expansion tank. The hoses I see online have have two smaller lines coming from the bigger pump to rad portion.
Another question how robust are these radiators? I have reason to believe mine is the original with 100k. I learned never to piece meal suspension or cooling parts. One and done.

 

Radiator is robust, brass and copper, can be hot flushed and rodded out by indy rad shop to remove calcium build up, solder up any minor leaks; usually under $100. Recore is more. New rad is $500 plus....

My hose looks like the one you have in the truck.

I do like my 180F thermostat.

 

Shoot I ordered the cooler t-stat,88c IIRC. My goal was to try and keep things as cool as possible. Mine looks to have had a recent head gasket done. I have no prior service records. I think I'll take some pics along the way.