So they want to make sure you don’t play games with the state, but who’s the one really playing games here? If the state is at their own will, lowering the emissions ranges on purpose just to get these trucks off the road they are the ones playing games. My truck is 100% stock, almost everything new, and I still have to sweat a smog test every two years. My truck was made in USA, purchased in USA, payed all the rediculous gas taxes in USA, and the state is minipulating smog numbers to get it off the road. I call BS. And, I’m really tired of seeing all these Tesla’s and Prius’s on the road around here.
I didn't say it was a righteous situation - to the contrary. To change Pass/Fail criteria after the fact is something you have to understand as coming from duly elected officials and if these persons don't reflect your desires, they are still elected officials and that's the way it is.
OK - point made - but let's review some of the anger and discontent with the way things are going on regarding emissions and emission controls rules and laws, and enforcement of them.
In the federal arena, all the laws that are decided upon and made to be enforced upon the manufacturers is SUPPOSED to sharpen up the herd by winnowing out those companies and vehicles that do not pass ever-tightening rules and regulations. Yeah - it's not only unfair - it's also unpopular.
Blame the ironworkers, ore-smelters, steel manufacturers, the unions, somebody's brother-in-law who owns an A.I.R. Pump manufacturing facility - it's not always fair - but it is the law. This is on a Federal level and if perchance your state refuses to enforce these laws, so be it.
BUT these laws are still in effect and I for one have no problem with an A.I.R. pump on a vehicle since it's 'drag on horsepower' really doesn't exist in that it injects air into the exhaust well after all the horsepower has been generated.
It never fails to amuse and amaze me that people are so hostile to a single device that by itself removes such a tremendous amount of unburned fuel that it alone is the single most effective device on earlier engines in the first place. If it 'backfires' it is NOT the pumps fault. It is the diverter valve - or in some cases, the dump valve as it has been incorrectly called. During deceleration, the non-injected engines can go rich and that unburned fuel is pushed out the exhaust valve and if the 'smog pump' is still sending air into the exhaust stream, yes - indeed you can experience backfire.
I remember that the 1966 1/2 GMs had a bad design diverter valve and they failed constantly. The repair was to install an update valve - which the dealers did as a recall. However, by that time many shade tree mechanics had taken the whole A.I.R system off the engine.
Later on, when the "66-70 Retrofit NOx " systems fiasco was required, many of these M-M-D vehicles were caught and cited as non-compliant for the M-M-D inspection evaluation.
So - and since I have COPD from exposure to Agent Orange and the effects of being a shipfitter (welder-fabricator) in the US Navy, I am particularly bugged by those who remove their A.I.R systems. It causes no harm to the engine, it's performance and it is such a reliable and positive force in clean, breathable air that I wrinkle at the person who would do this to the air I am forced to breathe.
The purple and brown haze in the air that you can see (LA are you listening?) is very likely from M-M-D systems. THAT is the singularity - it is the GAME that people play with the ARB.
Remember the guys who took their cats off during the year and put them back on to get their vehicles tested for registration purposes? Remember how the cats were made of stainless steel and they were a b-i-t-c-h to reweld conventionally and you were forced to take your cats-in-hand to a muffler shop to get it re-heliarc'd to the system?
Remember how the muffler shops were fined when caught, for doing that? Remember how the muffler shops began to refuse to reinstall a cat for you on fear of that $25,000 fine and loss of ever doing business in California again?
I'm all for that - fine the snot out of those who illegally remove critical parts from their systems because they think they are getting away with something - 'gaming the system' so to speak.
Reality check here:
How much performance or economy was gained when you whacked off the A.I.R system? ZERO!
How much trouble is it to keep the belt on the pulley to drive the pump? NONE.
How much trouble is it to keep decent vacuum lines on the GULP VALVE and CTS? Very little!
FWIW: I still have my original 'smog pump' on my 1986 K5 since it causes me no grief, loss of horsepower nor loss of fuel economy - and I even have the same belt on it that was there when I bought this K5 in 1991.
This ---> as an aside: the state in which I reside does not require emission testing on vehicles. That's their choice, but it is after all a FEDERAL LAW that is not being enforced here ---- and even so, I opt to stay as OE in the emission department as I can.
SIDEBAR: Some over 8,001 lb GVR GM BB and SB vehicles ONLY have the A.I.R pump and they run pretty damned clean at the tailpipe.
So where's the gripe? The problem? The performance gain?
You have a non-argument here concerning your 'Smog Pump' and all the 'grief' it causes you.
I say: "BS".
It’s the same truck, even if it were new its gonna make the emissions it makes. It is what it is. How can they make the allowed ranges lower and lower every time 
What do they want me to do, come back in two year with a Prius engine in it?.
