my friend had to replace his water pump and radiator at 160k in a civic. It runs nice and cool now.

First I would top off the fluid. You can use distilled water for that. Once you have it full run the engine with the radiator cap off. Rev it up to a descent rpm and look inside the radiator. If the water is swooshing around or even spewing out then your pump is working. At that point I would say its an old radiator.

Does it overheat quickly or graduately?