I doesn’t seem to affect the block production. I upgraded 2 weeks ago and minted one block on node 8.7.3 with 128k ADA live stake and 16K pledge. Running full speed for about 6 months now and 6 blocks minted so far.
Struggled in the beginning and found out my block producer was not running as a block producer (core - mainnet) but as a relay node (relay - mainnet) => see at top in GliveView. Got some great help on this forum from the community.
https://forum.cardano.org/t/feedback-on-stakepool-setup/119630/6
Also be sure your node.cert is valid when turning KES.