Why does gasoline eventually go bad?
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Most modern gasoline is cracked gasoline, which means, it is produced by thermally decomposing heavier hydrocarbons. Cracked hydrocarbons contain double bonds, which means they have spare bonds and will eventually re-couple back into long heavy molecules that don’t belong in gasoline.
Non-cracked gasoline produced directly by oil fractionation exists, but most of it is low octane and is used as lighter and burner fuel (e.g. Coleman fuel, Zippo fuel) rather than motor fuel. Its octane number is around 50 and it will knock horribly and possibly damage the motor if used as motor fuel. But it does not go bad, as it is made of almost entirely single bond hydrocarbons.
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