A local Chevy dealer once got a Silverado pickup with the 454 (7.5 liters) V8 in it. As an anti-theft measure, they disconnected four of the spark plug wires when they parked it on the lot. It got stolen anyway - it turns out that a 454 will still run on half it's cylinders.

Seems it would be more effective to slightly disconnect the coil wire, in addition to being less work to reverse.

Now many Chevy V8s do this by design while you run down the highway.

Which just highlights that if you do something - do it 100%, don’t just do it half-hearted…!