help with a bad cylinder

Hi All
I have a 94 sl2 that I love and have had for 3 years. This car has been great for me. It has been mis firing so I took it to the mechanic and they told me that after putting it to a machine that # 1 was only getting 30 compression and should be about 150 and that it would be 1200 dollars to fix. It has alot of miles on it.(176,000) I am trying to get another car but until i do is it okay to drive it on the 3 cylinders for now or can I make it worse by doing it. i just dont want to rush into anything so while I am waiting i need to get back and forth to work. Any advice would be greatly appreciated... Thank You

Yes, you could make it worse, depending on it's fault. A shot head gasket could let antifreeze into the oil system.

if nothing else, unplug the electrical connectior to the #1 fuel injectior.

did he say what the problem was? have you been losing coolant or has it been overheating? do you notice anything odd inside the spark plug hole? is there metal shavings on the spark plug? with low compression it could be blown head gasket, cracked head, bad valve stem seals, piston rings, or a bad piston(cracked or has a hole in it). if you do a pressure test on the cylinder you can tell where the probelm is at. if you hear air coming out the oil fill cap then its bad valve stem seals, if you notice coolant backing up into overflow tank then its cracked head or blown head gasket, if you can hear air going into the oil pan(best if oil is drained and plug left out) then its bad piston or rings. if you hear air coming out of the exhaust or intake then there is something up with the valves(you must make sure first that intake and exhaust valves are suppose to be shut, compression to ignition stroke). if the problem pertains to stuck rings you can easily try marvel mystery oil and soak the piston. in most cases i say to put enough in to pool, but for you id say soak it good and let it set 24 hours but keep checking on it and fill it back up if it goes down. that could also be a test for you to see if the piston and rings are good, because if the mmo goes down pretty quickly then you found the problem area.