[Bill Baer]

Tom
Well Tom If you think about it compression ratio is just an expression of a mechanical relationship and isn't affected by the air fuel ratio or the fuel type.(i.e. it doesn't change)
Your concern that the volume of fuel to burn at the afr required for alcohol will be greater with the lower c/r ,theoreticaly making more power.doesn't make sense to me as the fuel itself is not oxygen bearing and the fuel itself in basically not compressable only the air the fuel is suspended in is compressable.
If you look at how Alcohol dragsters are running an 11:1 CR with thirty plus pounds of boost their effective compression ratio's are much higher that the 17.3:1 naturally aspirated combo your working with. My guess is that in the other engines you were working with that their lack of improvement was due to the chamber design the amount of squish and swirl which may result in some of the fuel falling out of suspension which resulted in detonation.
So based upon what the dragster guys are doing I think if you can get the air fuel mixture to stay homigized you should be able to produce more power with a higher compression ratio.

But then of course I could be wrong!