Did I damage engine

[642buteo]

I was driving my vette on the highway about 45 minutes from home when the tach showed the rpm acting weird, I pulled over and engine was idleling rough . I drove car home and when engine was cold I took heat shield off manifold and discovered spark plug wire off one plug. Engine runs fine but I was wondering if this could damage the engine with one cylinder not firing. Thanks

 

[Vettehead Mikey]

Doesn't do any damage, but doesn't do it any good either.

 

[81 Corvette]

i wouldn't worry too much about it, thats happened to me as well.

somebody else may say something different tho.

 

[MoeJr]

This will not damage the engine. You may just wanna pull that plug just to make sure it isn't fouled from not firing. Other than that you are fine.

 

[Glensgages]

This will not damage the engine. You may just wanna pull that plug just to make sure it isn't fouled from not firing. Other than that you are fine.

Good call.....

 

[Ctfoodguy2000]

Great advice.... only damage will be a fouled plug. Pull it, clean it, drive it!

 

[78SilvAnniv]

Had a similar problem...

Rebuilt the engine and dropped it in only to have trouble tuning it and getting it to idle smooth and not surge. Sent the carb away for rebuilding and when it returned, we still had trouble getting it to run right.

Had to leave for a weekend wedding and I did not want to wait for my 78 anymore and sent it to the neighbor's father's shop. (He's built race engines for years.) Picked the 78 up when we returned and found he also had trouble tuning it.
He had found that one of the rocker stud bolts (correct term?) had snapped and was causing all our problems. Changed the bolt, replaced the spark plug and the 78 is just screaming now!
Heidi

 

[642buteo]

Thanks everybody , I feel better. When I pulled over on highway I suspected that proplem but engine was way to hot to keep grabbing around as the heat shield was hiding it . maybe I will leave shields off in case it happens again, not sure how it happened in the first place.