Drove for 30 minutes on three cylinders - any damage?

[srfndoc]

One of my spark plug wires came off and I didn't know it. Drove the bus for about 30 minutes at 45mph until I pulled over. Put the plug wire back on and it blew white smoke for about a minute and now it's running normal again and not blowing any smoke.

I'm going to do a compression test and adjust the valves but do you think I hurt anything?

Thanks
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RPM=(MPH*336* (R&P*4th*1.26))/Tire Diameter in inches

[ned]

I wouldn`t think so. But someone will probably disagree.

[srfndoc]

BTW, it's a Type 1 motor with a dual carb setup.
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[WestyPop]

BTDT < 30mi, but likely no damage, unless you overheated something.
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Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.
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J.R.
68 Westy
(+ others)

[ubercrap]

Might the oil need to be changed as well?
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'74 412 wagon
(2) '74 412 2dr. sedan
'73 412 2dr. sedan

[srfndoc]

Totally freaked me out as it's a fairly new motor. The spark plug wire came off with the top of the spark plug (the part that unscrews) with it. No idea that could come loose like it did but I'm just hoping it's ok.
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[Bart Dunn]

All that happened is that cylinder didn't fire...so you were blowing some gas out the exhaust. Unless you really pushed the engine, like driving up mountain passes at 55 mph in second, I can't imagine it got damaged by that.

That being said, it's not ideal. How is it that one doesn't stop and remedy this? I assume the power loss was noticeable, as would've been the change in the "balance" of the engine.
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Not enough car seats fit into my:
'58 Beetle convertible
'58 Beetle sedan

[ccpalmer]

Heck; years ago on a road trip I had a leaky exhaust gasket; I'd just unplug the spark plug wire to the loud cylinder to make my engine quieter when I drove through small towns... I never had a problem from doing that. Beat having the fuzz on my back!!
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'71 Westy

[SGKent]

you should be Ok, change the oil if it feels light but really it should be Ok. Am surprised you didn't feel it.
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“Most people don’t know what they’re doing, and a lot of them are really good at it.” - George Carlin

[srfndoc]

Yeah, consider it a dumbass move on my part. I knew it was not right, just thought it was something minor.

Compression Test

1 - 138
2 - 138
3 - 120
4 - 121

I don't have anything previously to compare it to but that seems to be within the 10% difference per side, correct?
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[VolkzBitz]

Only problem with driving on 3 cylinders is that the 4th one is still sucking in gas which washes all the oil off the cylinder walls. If your compressions are ok, then you should be fine. I would probably change the oil just in case some gas got into it.

[Wildthings]

Certainly not a good thing to do. It can scar the dead cylinder up by washing the oil off the walls and it can cause the other cylinders to over heat from running for so long under a load 30-40% heavier than normal. All in all you probably haven't do much damage at this point though, an awful lot of VWAC engines run this way too much of the time.

[volksterii]

Does anyone think that the uneven running of the engine would pound the main saddles some? You wouldn't notice until you took the engine apart. I just believe that you took some miles off the engine (shortened its life).
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71 Westy Hardtop, 1915
2005 Touareg V8 air susp.

[srfndoc]

I was unsure about the difference from side to side on the compression. My mechanic said it may be they did not deck the case correctly.
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[Wildthings]

I think I have checked the compression on my 1800 once in the twenty two years I have been running it. That was five years ago when I swapped it from one body to another. Beyond that I really don't care to know what the compression is. If the engine runs good, who cares if one cylinder has 10, 20, or 30 psi less compression than another. It just floors me when people pull there plugs and check compression at the drop of the hat. Who has time for that?

I had one job twenty years back, they wanted a compression check on every engine once a year so they could evaluate how much life each engine had left. I flat out refused to do it as all of the engines started normally when cold, which is as good an indicator as any that an engine is okay. In all my years at that company where we saw hundreds of thousands of hours of engine use not one single engine ever just wore out, the few that failed did so mostly from accidents like being driven into a swamp or being rolled over.

[srfndoc]

Yeah, I'm not sweating the compression difference since the motor is running great again. Good to hear some anecdotal evidence though.
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