7A-FE Compression Ratio, Looking at changing the CR of my 7afe when I rebuild. Options

[PaukST]

Hey all, I'm trying to decide what to do with my 7AFE (have to take it apart due to a rod knock anyway). I've kicked around a few ideas (or maybe a lot ), and I'm currently researching what an increase in compression ratio might do. Does anyone have any info on this? I'm unsure of the potential difference in performance, and I can't seem to find any hard data on what pistons (4age, smallport 4age, 4agze) result in what CR. I've been trying to make sense of these tools and formulas - http://www.csgnetwork.com/compcalc.html http://s-86.com/s-cr.html and http://s-86.com/s-cr-chart.html - but I'm having a hard time digging out the relevant numbers. Doing the math myself or using the calculator I come up with significantly different numbers than their little handy chart, so I don't know what to think. Is this a futile exercise? Will I even be able to notice a performance difference over the stock 9.5:1 without having to use higher octane?

[PaukST]

Given what Smaay mentioned about the one he tore down and rebuilt, It's possible that the difference between a tired engine and a clean, fresh rebuilt one may be all I need... My perception of the 7AFE so far has been shaped by 2 tired engines, hardly an objective reference point.

I thought about boosting it, but if it's lively enough to get me around, reliable, and gets good gas mileage, I can always pick up a toy later to go wild on. Or if I pick up a different daily driver, I still have another 7AFE that needs a rebuild - I could always do it differently the 2nd time around.