Well not quickly but it would overheat.
What makes you thin the head gasket was installed backwards and upside down ? They are all clearly labeled front or top.
And we could not tell if the are installed right without knowing the brand of gasket...

And did you put the rad in the 6cyl location on the truck ? Or is it still in the V8 location ? The 6 cyl spot will give ya a couple extra inches of room.
And with universal fit corrugated hoses you do need spring in them to keep them from collapsing...

 

 

Most of them flex hoses as Matt is do not need a spring as they are pretty hard.
You can try and squeeze it and see but I think you will be ok there.

Any room in front of radaitor to mount a pusher fan and not the puller you have now?
Sometimes 2 smaller fans with shroud is better that 1 large fan.

I would look into why the fan is not running at full speed.
BTW who makes the fan? Model number so we noisy Ines can look up the ****.
Dave - - - -

 

Ok on the fel pro gaskets there may be gasket over hanging on both the front and back...
if you suspect the were installed upside down and backwards you can check this.
it will mean being under hood or under the vehicle with the engine running. And Ideally you want an infrared thermometer to do this.

TO give you an idea what you are looking for.
The head gaskets ensure the bulk of the coolant flow enters the head at the back of the engine. The coolant then flows the length of the head and exits in to the intake at the front of the engine then out to the rad.

If the gaskets are installed upside down and backwards. The bulk of coolant will leave the block at the front of the head and to the intake. . this prevents coolant from cooling the back of the block and the heads.
If they are installed upside down and backwards There will be a significant temp difference between the back of the block and the front of the block and significant temp difference between the front of the head and the back of the head.

With the engine up to temp. From under the vehicle feel the back back of the block and then the front of the block or measure using the infrared thermometer . If there is a significant difference in temp time to start worrying. The do the same from above for the heads. If the back of the block and the back of head are much hotter than the fronts then your head gaskets are in upsidedown and backwards.

Below is pic of a set of Fel Pro SBF head gaskets. The circled areas ALWAYS go to the back of the block or firewall side this is applicable to ALL Ford OHV V8's and pretty much all engines in general.
Also as you can see both ends of the head gasket will overhang.


Check this to rule out the improper installation of the head gaskets.

As for Fans Dave has good point on the 2 smaller fans. Ideally you want to cover as much of the rads surface as you can with fan blade. With your limited clearance it may not be practical to install a shroud. Also a poorly designed shroud is worse than no shroud at all as they severely limit cooling at speed. Example a shallow flat shroud with no depth and no flow though vents is worse than none at all.
In your case I would install a couple smaller pusher fans on the front of the rad to cover areas not covered by the larger fan on the back. or you could add a large pusher on the front. If you go to 2 large fans. Mount one puller high on the rad and the other pusher low on the rad to give as much coverage as possible. Make the puller the primary and the pusher the secondary. In your 48 you have more room in front of the rad for fans than you do on the back so there will be no clearances issues.. And really this sounds like just inadequate air movement. But do check for improper head gasket install if you suspect it.

 

Okay,
So I bypassed the temp sensor on the fan and ran it to switched power to see if that was my issue. The fan ran at full blast the whole time, so maybe I got two bad fan sensors??

But...the engine still started creeping up to 225-230 after twenty minutes of idling in my driveway. The coolant started to overflow into the reservoir. I had an infrared thermometer and tested all over the entire engine the whole time with no noticeable differences between the front and the back of the block/heads or from either side to either side.

However, see short video below. This started happening every minute or so. I assume I have an oil leak somewhere? Any idea what this could be from? It was pretty consistent after it started.

https://i.imgur.com/qJMaFs4.mp4


I am open to all advise on how to trouble shoot this. I don't think the fan is the issue, as it was running the whole time and the engine still slowly crept up above normal temp. I don't imagine its the head gaskets being upside down/backwards since the temps on the block and heads were all similar. Any other ideas?