I cannot remove my smog pump, however I am currently not running an air valve because it was getting in the way of something. I've heard that letting the air pump just pump to atmosphere is bad for it and will kill it. Right now, I just cut the metal bracket-tube coming off the air pump in half and stuck the short L shaped hose and filter on it that normally comes off the top of the diverter valve. What causes it to seize up when pumping to the atmosphere? I fail to see how what it's doing now could possibly be any different than normal operation, as far as the pump itself is concerned.

That's an old wives tale. They go bad plenty without being disconnected.
No, what kills air pumps is 20 year old grease drying up on the tiny roller bearings inside it. The pump will be quite content pumping out into the air as long as nothing goes back up the outlet pipe. (water, dirt, wayward screws) You seem to have that taken care of with the filter on it.
(which reminds me, I need to put something over the outlet of mine)
What you should do is treat those little bearings to a small amount of wheel bearing grease, the thin kind.

Or get a delete pulley. Or run a shorter belt.

Thank you.

actually, for the smog delete with a/c you need to run a longer belt. i used a 97inch

the tech article suggests a 96.8in but they only had a 97 in stock and it works perfect.

Well i have TPI and i have a lot smaller crank pulley. Either way i cant remember if it was longer or shorter...longer now that i think about it. I spent an hour literally running back and forth to my car trying out each belt to get the one that fit best...and to think i didnt write down the size . I may have an underdrive pulley on my crank im not sure about that either. But comparing to a L03s crank pulley mine is tiny.

what also kills a smog pump is having a coolant leak right above it and the coolant gets sucked inside and flushes out the bearings and also kills ur diverter valve belive me lol i'm still trying to get my hands on a new valve.