Stupid radiators

[wildfire]

I did have a long story typed up but it was a little too long so here's the basics:

Went up to the house of someone my girlfriend used to work with. On the way back I had to pull in to a Circle K because the temp gauge had shot through the roof and CEL had come on throwing me into limp mode. After adding some fluid to the radiator after it had cooled I did some checking around. Low and behold.......I find a hole in the front of the radiator spitting fluid everywhere. There was an Advanced Auto about 1/4 mile up the road so I topped off the radiator and headed up there before I lost all the fluid. I got a $2 tube of Alumaseal and poured it in right away then topped off the radiator, AGAIN, and made it the rest of the way home without a problem.

Needless to say I'm replacing the radiator tommorrow, which is why I'm posting this.
I'm definitley going to check all the hoses and I might as well have a look at the thermostat while everything's off, my question is: is there anything else I should look at while I'm in there?

[skewe]

worth looking at the water pump.
change the hose while you are changing the radiator cos those hoses are few bucks a piece if your buy it at autozone, etc.

[atobe]

check the thermostat too since it's right there with the lower rad hose.

[wildfire]

Got the new radiator in. Really wasn't all that bad. The hardest part was getting some of the bolts off. I couldn't believe how nasty the old radiator was until my stepdad got it out (he helped me out big time), Most of the "fins" had rotted out. The new one's nice and shiny and it works a whole lot better.

The hoses were still in good shape. So were the temp sensor and the thermostat, but I replaced the thermostat anyways just to be safe. The gasket around it though was pretty much shot so that had to be replaced.

The most frustrating part was after we had it all put back together. When he reconnected the lower hose, the gasket for the thermostat got pinched and started leaking. He had to go to advanced auto and get a new one. At least it was only $1.50...

I'll have pics of it mounted up later today. I don't have shots of the old one though; I didn't think to take any while I was over there.