Going back to a mechanical cooling fan

the fan looks to be on backwards

 

No it's on right...clockwise rotation and your looking from the drivers perspective to the front of the Jeep.

 

If it is clockwise looking from the drivers seat, then your fan is backwards. That fan is pushing air through the radiator, not pulling it.

 

My description was not very clear...its clockwise if standing in front of the Jeep and looking at it...but the view in the pic is from the driver seat. Its definitely pulling air through the right direction...I tested it with a plastic shopping bag when I installed it just to make sure.

 

Some time sit down and look at your fan, notice the angles of the blades. Turn it over, same angles! Reverse rotation motors like was used in some twin drive boats. Some heavy equipment had a pusher fan or most serpentine systems have a counter rotating blade. They are the only thing that will change the fan direction.
It could be the picture, it seems like there is some cupping to the blades. If there is, the fan may indeed be on backwards. Yours will work either way but it is more effecient with the concave side toward the block.

 

Maybe that is what gave me the impression that it was pushing air, instead of pulling it.

 

Er, what? I don't think it's possible. Your jeep iisn't sitting in my front yard so I can't really check it out myself. As I said before. check to see if there is some cups to the fan blades.
AZ isn't too far away but driving a 3B with 185 K on the v6 might be asking a bit too much from it. Even with the OD.

 

Not a push-or-pull issue, but the leading edge of the fan blade curvature does seem bassackwards in the photo. Cups the wrong way, I think.

 

The fan sure looks backwards to me too. Flip that thing over. And your radiator really looks like he||. Any idea when it was replaced or recored last? I see a lot of corrosion on the fins. That really hurts your heat transfer and it's likely plugged internally too. I have a relatively small aluminum radiator (the same size as the grille opening) cooling a nearly 500 horse Chevy smallblock in my Jeep and even on 90* days the thing never goes over 170. I have a thermostatically controlled pusher fan on the front of the radiator and a small mechanical fan on the engine with no shroud.

 

I'll flip the fan now that I know it's on backwards. The radiator is not corroded at all, it's been professionally cleaned, rodded, tested, etc. It's just some surface dust from wheeling.