disabling resonator...

Hello again all,
As you may or may not know, the current project I am working on now involves reading eeproms that are on-board and controlled by their own host mcu's. I seem to be running into a slight snag on one of my reads, and I believe it is the host mcu's clock causing it. My question is, can I simply ground the clock (resonator) pins on the host mcu so I don't get garbage from my I2C eeprom read? Will there be any ill effects from doing so? I recall reading somewhere that someone had to do this same type of thing, but I can't find the post to save my life! If you guys could give me any input, it would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks again guys,
Chris