He did that.

 

^Thanks.

What I meant to say was that while I was looking at it the scan tool held pretty well right around 210 once up to operating temp. I'm convinced we don't have an accurate reading at the guage because when I'm showing 210 on my scan tool the guage on the dash is showing closer to 240 (no brainer). We seem to have a functioning Jeep again, which is great. I drove it a little while ago and the electric cooling fan still doesn't seem to kick on at all. The guage shows 210 while driving but at idle it creeps up to about 230. Flip on the a/c (which doesn't work) to kick the electric fan on and the temp guage comes back down. Put it in drive and just as soon as I take off the temp guage creeps back down to 210. Aside from the variance in actual temp and what the guage is reading I think we've got a driver.

 

How 'bout the fan clutch.......that been replaced? An absolute must that the fan clutch be in tip top working condition at low/no vehicle speed.

 

How old is your mechanical thermal clutch fan? Getting hot at idle and cooling down with speed is a classic symptom of a failed/failing mech. fan
Upgrade to the ZJ HD fan. cools a ton better, and Only 10 bucks more than the stock XJ one that totally sucks.
NAPA part #272310 ONLY that part number ONLY from NAPA. Don't get the MaxKool one they'll ask ya about b/c it won't fit. Just the 97-98 ZJ Heavy Duty one.

Only this one and it's cheap. Besides if you haven't replaced it it's time anyways:

http://www.napaonline.com/Search/Res...mber&Nty=1&N=0

 

personally I have my fans routed hot to the battery with a switch in the cab that way i can turn em on whenever i need,. When I was having overheating problems having an after market temp gauge helped me a lot. i got me a auto meter gauge from advance and it works great. a all i did to fix my problems with boiling over was got a 180 degree thermostat and flushed the system really good. when i was done i pinched the top radiator hose to get the air bubbles out. hope this helps in some way!

 

Thanks everyone for all of the help and comments.

The fan clutch hasn't been replaced however it seems to be working properly. It has quite a bit of flow through the grill (I layed a piece of paper over the grill in front of the mechanical fan and it sucks it right to the grill). I know that's not a very "scientific" way to determine whether or not the fan clutch is working properly but it sure SEEMS to be alright. To be honest, I know wiring the electric fan to run all the time isn't the proper repair but I know that'll make it run the proper temp. It's not exactly "operating as designed" but given the fact that this system was junk from the factory when NEW I dunno what else to do at this point.