Relation between bad spark connection and lower compression? Options

[john_g]

Hey, guys, I'm curious about an interesting coincidence. My latest 914 is relatively new to me. When I purchased it, I noticed that it missed significantly at higher revs, especially in the lower gears. The owner said that it there was a rev limiter in the electronic ignition, but I knew that was BS because I removed the dizzie cap and saw that it had the normal rotor w/o the rev limiter, and also because I never ran it even close to the red line. The other issue I noted was that the #3 cylinder's compression was significantly lower than the other cylinders, but of course I assumed these two issues were unrelated.

When I got it home I found that the spark wire connection at the distributor cap for the #3 cylinder was very poor. As soon as I replaced the spark wires the problem of the engine missing stopped. This has got me thinking. Obviously, from what the PO said, the missing (and the bad spark connection at #3) had been going on for a while. Is it possible that running the car for a long time w/ poor spark at one cylinder could lower compression, through incomplete combustion, unburned gas, etc? And ... if the cylinder and valves are gummed up from this, could I expect that the compression could increase after some lengthy drives and cleaner combustion?