I bought a 2013 R6 last week. I didn't notice the previous owner had removed the fan. I ran it for the first time today. I stopped to talk to someone after a session with the bike idling. The red temperature light came on and the temperature was 250ish. It may have been this way for a couple of minutes. I noticed a small amount of coolant/water in my belly pan. I ran a couple more sessions afterwards. The bike seemed fine. No further problems with overheating. I was obviously diligent about not letting it idle for long again. I plan to change the oil and the coolant. Can I stop worrying that I've damaged my "new" bike?
Sounds like you'll be ok. If you start noticing weird cooling system issues suspect a warped head, but i'd presume you'd see that in your prior runs. Hopefully it doesn't manifest itself in a later date. On a side note we had a guy overheat a dodge nitro the other day and a valve seat dropped out of the head holding the valve open. So really, anything can happen.
Look for coolant in your oil when you change it out next. If it's milky or smells like coolant, you could have (as pointed out above) a head warp issue or a blown head gasket. If you don't have fans, simply just turn the bike off when youre sitting at a stop, or are waiting to get on track. While moving, if you're bike is in the normal operating temp range (170-200), you shouldn't have any issues mechanically with your cooling system.
Yeah, no problems while moving before or after the incident. Will look at the oil/coolant (water) when I change it and plan to do a leak down/comp test when the season ends otherwise. Fans on the way already. Wouldn't have removed them in the first place myself. Thanks for the input!
