Maybe it is an electric fan and the "your fan is on backwards" is the polarity on the electric motor is switched and the motor is actually turning to push air into the rad rather than pulling it out??? Just a thought.
My track car I had to weld a new fan mount and I decided to use a 99 fan and motor I had laying around rather than the 93. The fan blades were "backwards". so the motor had to turn the other way, so the wires had to be switched...
