Charge Pipes, BOV’s and Intercoolers Compatibility Guide

Hello everyone! So I know it can be super confusing with all the different connection styles for the 2020-24 and 2025+ Explorer’s to figure out what intercooler you should get, if you need to get charge pipes or if you want a BOV and can’t figure out what you need for that, etc., so I thought I would give as best of a rundown on the subject as best as I could. Enjoy!

2020-24 vs 2025+ Charge Pipe to Intercooler Connection

For the 2025 model year, Ford decided to change the charge pipe to intercooler connection style. This meant the intercoolers made for the 2020-24 cars did not work with the 2025+ stock charge pipes, and same with the charge pipes, the aftermarket charge pipes do not work with the 2025+ stock intercoolers. To combat this, FenFabrication and CV-Fab came up with their own solutions for two different aspects of the problem:

CV-Fabrication 2025+-specific Intercooler

CV-Fabrication released their 2025+ specific intercooler, which uses the 2025+ connection style. This means if you have a 2025+ car you don’t need to replace the charge pipes. This does mean however, if you wanted to upgrade your hot side charge pipes later on, you can’t, you would need to get a 2020-24 intercooler. If you wanted a cold side charge pipe later on however, there is a workaround for that:

FenFabrication Cold Side Adapter Coupler

Since the aftermarket has yet to make charge pipes with the 2025+ connector style, the hot side and cold side charge pipes will not work with a 2025+ OE intercooler or 2025+ specific intercooler. FenFabrication came out with a cold side to intercooler adapter coupler. This means you can get a Fenfab cold side charge pipe and the adapter coupler, and it would work with a 2025+ intercooler. Now to clarify, FenFabrication came only confirms fitment with their charge pipes, not other companies (I have heard of fitment problems with other manufacturers cold side charge pipe and the adapter).

Compatibility Guide

So now we know the two workarounds the aftermarket has came up with, what should you be getting? I came up with this infographic which I believe simplifies this as much as possible:

What should you get?

Before you purchase anything, you need to answer the following questions, and here is how I summarize them:

Do you want an upgraded intercooler? I would highly recommend one, the stock one is extremely undersized and heat soaks very easily.
Do you want a BOV? In other words, do you want the pshhhhhhh blowoff sound?
Do you want aftermarket charge pipes? The colored versions look good, gains are very very minimal however, so money may best be spent elsewhere.

So knowing the answers you may have for those questions, guide yourself through this flow chart and you will see what is best for you:

*Note: If you want a BOV, you just need to make sure the cold side charge pipe you are getting has the BOV flange*

Option 1: You want a 2020-24 Intercooler
Option 2: You want a 2020-24 intercooler with hot and cold side charge pipes
Option 3: You want a 2020-24 intercooler with cold side charge pipe
Option 4: You want a 2025+ specific intercooler
Option 5: You want a 2025+ specific intercooler, Fenfab cold side charge pipe, and FenFab adapter
Option 6: You want a cold side charge pipe
Option 7: You want a Fenfab cold side charge pipe, and FenFab adapter
Option 8: You want a hot and cold side charge pipe
Option 9: You want nothing, or unfortunately what you want is not compatible with what you have.

I hope this article clears up confusion on this subject. If you are still confused, feel free to email me at fordexplorerst@outlook.com or comment below and I will try my best to answer. Thanks for reading and be sure to subscribe to keep up with all our latest content!