Noticed over the last few days my idle temp now gets up to about 226 before the fans get it back down to about 210ish... but on the highway it still a solid 198-199.

checked the coolant level, hasnt budged... hi speed fans kick on, can see/hear/feel them..., no waterfall noises by the core and blows hot, and the mech fan doesnt spin much when hot like it should, no apparent damage to the fans, shroud etc... any ideas?

just strange to go up to a 210-226 cycle around town, normally see no more then 215 then it would go back to 204 on the fans. highway temps the same, so i dont think its radiator muck...

outside temps havent changed, actually rather cold this week, still near/below freezing the last few nights too. i dont know how old the radiator is, but the wp, thermo, hoses, belt etc are all newish.

 

I would get a thermometer to check the radiator to make sure it is working as it should. Also sounds like a good time to put in 180 degree therm.

 

Those temps do seem a little high. You might want to try switching to motorad 180 or the grey OEM thermostat. I was running about 217 in the traffic and 199 on the highway before the motorad, now I never go over 204.8 and highway is a cool 190-194.

If you have a bigger probleem like a clogged radiator then a new thermostat wont help so make sure you eliminate all other things.

Did you switch to the green coolant from orange? If you don't get all the orange stuff out before you switch to the green then the 2 mixing can form this gel like crap that will clog everything up.

How old is the fan clutch?

 

Sounds like the fan clutch to me

 

Put the 180 degree soft spring land rover thermostat in from Roversnorth.com

That solved my temps problem.

Look for muck in the radiator fins and in the a/c condenser fins.

Fan should ROAR at times.
If not - replace the fan clutch.

 

Agreed. Your radiator won't clog up by itself in a matter of days. Plus if it gets hot at idle, but less so on the highway, that indicates that the air forced through the radiator by the motion of the vehicle is cooling it down. You stop, the airflow stops because your fan isn't doing what it should.