scare bleu! I know lots about Tolulene. It's a Benzene base chemical thinner which has been used for years as an octane booster. In my opinion, its worse than tetra etyhl lead in terms of environmental risk. Over here in New Zeland, our aromatic hydrocarbon level is so high, a four gas anayliser goes of in any busy street in my town.
Despite my philosphical dislike of the stuff (born through three years as a tar macadam/Bitumen/emulsion technician), I think compression ratio increases are okay as long as the engine is optimised to suit. All tests on conventional GM V8 engines show that increase in compression with no cam optimization causes a loss in peak power. Past 10:1, volumetric efficeincy drops as CR goes up, if the cam isn't optimised to suit. In the case of an old dunger postwar car, going from 6.8:1 to 7.8 or 8.8:1 gives half the % increase in power. Above 10:1, you must optimise the engine to suit, and you don't see those increases unless you add camshaft duration, lift and overlap.
The reason is that if he engine is on the cusp of detonation at 8.8 or 9.8:1, then at 10.8:1, you'll be right on to it, even if you octane goes up from 96 to 105 by the addition of tolulene. To use 10.8:1, you've got to retart cam timing to get cold cranking compression below 190 psi. Then you may have to fiddle with ignition timing.
The plus is that any engine with any compresion increase always yields significantly better part throttle fuel consumption.Peak power may flat line, but part throttle economy goes up.