The end tank is plastic, not the entire radiator. There is no real different in the cooling properties of stock replacements with plastic versus metal end tanks. I've seen cars almost as old as our with plastic end tanks in perfect shape; as long as the materials it's made of are decent, reliability isn't an issue.
I would go with a higher capacity radiator myself. If you're looking at spending $200 on an OEM replacement in aluminum I strongly recommend you at least spend another $100 and get a Koyo radiator for the 1JZ. You have to make two little brackets 1" x 2" out of some aluminum stock to mount the fan shroud securely, but it's not hard. The Koyo is the least expensive performance radiator that I know of and it performs very well; After that I think you're looking at $400 and up.
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