Well, looking at the picture of what I think the new part is, I can see the fan itself has a much bigger issue. The fan in the truck now does not have the circle connecting the top of all the blades. The blades are all there, but they are out there and free. So, with that piece of info, I'm wondering if it is the fan itself or still the clutch as the issue. At idle it does seem to pull plenty of air through. Sucks the plastic bag to the grill, and you could feel the air coming out by the engine.
So Mike/Buzz, if I were just going to replace the entire thing, does this look right? Can anyone confirm and see what their stock fan looks like?
Fan Assembly Includes Viscous Coupling | Land Rover Engine Parts at RoverParts.com
*Edit* The outside ring of the fan is there. I must have been smoking something when I looked at it before.

 

OK. Just looked a bit more in depth with the fan. It does freewheel fairly easy both directions. Not much resistance in it. There are a few chunks out of some blades, but I do not think that is making enough of a difference. It could be causing the vibration I get at certain RPM's though. The fan has a bit of play back and forth, not much, but some play.
As far as the t-stat, I'm really thinking it is not gunked up and is not the issue. The entire cooling system was pretty much new including the radiator, and it has been flushed twice since then. Coolant looks perfect. I'm not ruling it out, but I am thinking it is the clutch. So now, just to buy an entire new setup together or put something together. That is the big question.
Here is the fan:

If thought this was funny. The last person to change the belt drew a diagram under the shroud lol.

 

You can replace fan and clutch with pre-owned units or new, will improve vibration and water pump shaft bearing life. That's quite a chunk.

Here's pix of what I did with Chevy clutch and chevy fan. It does move more air than stock D1. All junkyeards may not have a Rover, but most have a Chevy...

I would agree with your idea that it is not stat or radiator - if - your drive speed photos were only for short period. A weak fan clutch would have moved temp higher, saturating the radiator, and would require a period of time at 50 - 70 mph to drop below 200 F. So if you just did a short sprint, might not have cooled off. One way you can test is to crank up and drive at 50 plus for say 15 minutes. Temp should not be 212+, even if fan was entirely removed.

 

Buy a used fan, usually comes with a clutch, try it, if it doesn't cool well enough the buy a chevy clutch.
What ever you do though, never cot blade on a plastic fan to make it fit. Doing this can cause small cracks to fail in the plastic and there goes the fan, Sorry Buzz, that idea scares me.

 

OOPS!! Missed another possible problem:

Think about a new cooling system, all parts 100% good, and what would make that hotter than it should be?

Running 100% or way too high % of antifreeze. Don't know who did the flush and re-fill, or if 50/50 was used, or if coolant containers mixed up, etc. Guess you could drain, save, and refill with straight water and repeat test. Or maybe one of those specific gravity testers (floating *****) that checks antifreeze concentration.

And Mike is correect, you should machine cut anything, inspect for cracks, etc. I found they had two types of fans, one all nylon with a nylon hub (black plastic, like a radiator tank), and the white nylon with metal hub. Will re-visit my handiwork per Mike, and it was intended as an experiment for showing what could be done when factory parts are not readily available. Antichrist had good info on a metal fan, which also needed minmal machining. The deeper fans do move more air, mine went from like 800 feet per minute to 1300+. Of course, still doesn't matter at 60 mph, where it is 5280 feet per minute of air speed.

 

You could also say that something as simple as tire size and air pressure can effect engine temp while driving in town.
I think there are way to many variables, including the octane of gas being burned, to check.

 

Sounds good. I did the last flush and fill. I used the pre-mix Peak Extended Life 50/50, so I'm thinking that should not be the issue. I will quickly check around tomorrow, but being we just had over a foot of snow I for sure do not want to be diving around in junkyards. Honestly, I don't mind spending a few extra bucks for piece of mind and getting the right part. Granted, I don't want to pay too much for anything, but my time is worth more than the time it would take to rig something up. If I didn't want a new fan too, I would likely have done the Chevy mod. I am in an overlap week for youth sports right now and it is a bit nuts. I coach, and we have football ending this week so 1 more practice and the final game plus party, and then wrestling started this week. Throw in work and then clean up from the storm, and another $100 for the new parts sounds just fine :-) Trust me, I don't say that often! In fact, it crossed my mind to just let a shop do it...but I don't want to get that crazy :-)
I will stop at Auto Zone and Advanced tomorrow to see if they might have an exact match for the Chevy (as in the clutch PLUS fan that would fit). A quick call to the auto recycle place too, then just order if all else fails. Crossing my fingers this is it. I tell you, this is the *perfect* example of why everyone should have gauges like this. No issues to be seen, nothing wrong on the dash and yet I'm running a fever anyway.

 

Well, if no gurgle under dash from combustion gas in coolant, that would be a good sign. No coolant loss, no white tail pipe smoke after warm up? So hopefully no HG leak or cracked block.

Auto parts store should have clutch in stock for Chevy 2000 van, 4.3 liter Without AC. The with AC model is a seven inch clutch and does not fit very well. You could replace clutch while you await correct fan, but... your fan might fail if clutch actually worked, as it would be handling more power from increased coupling.

With snow season upon you, low speed cooling is important.

 

Might throw in a bottle of water wetter to reduce cooling temps a few degrees, compatible with coolant, a modest bandaid until parts can be had. Don't forget the dismantlers, however your shipping is also going to be slow right now.

 

I also need the proper tool for this, which I see for my year is an open ended 36mm wrench. I will nose around for a cheap one, but likely a friend has one to borrow. For those that have done it, I see the LR bulletin has the procedure showing a tool to hold the fan as well. In the write ups here, it pretty much just said hit her with a hammer to get it off. Anything useful or a spot to hold the assembly while going to town with a hammer?
http://www.landroverclubvi.com/uploa...hod_change.pdf