O.K., maybe dumb question time here, VK, but how does an evaporator “fail”? It doesn’t have any moving parts (correct?) and is basically like a heater core (e.g. mini radiator), except that it contains gas refrigerant and not liquid coolant. 
I mean, I guess somehow a connection could come loose to it (it shouldn’t rust though, as it doesn’t contain fluid, right?) but seems that would be very rare and fixable from “behind”, possibly. ??? Do they have a permanent “stop leak” type stuff that can be added if it does develop an “unfixable” (from a practicable standpoint) leak?
On a '95 4.0??? 
How many miles does it have on it? Did your father drive it regularly, and when last? What makes you think the head gasket is going out as well? 
I had an a/c with a slow leak (Jap car) and asked my a/c techo at work and he said to always check the easy stuff first - standard advice for everything really.
I tracked it down in short time with some soapy water, to a poor seal at one of the fittings where it joins to the rubber hose. With age, the rubber loses its resilience and ceases to be able to grip the connector adequately. I took the original hose assembly to an auto a/c specialist to make a replacement and this fixed the issue and I had super cold air.
If you want to go this way there is something very critical to remember. Make sure you mark very firmly and precisely the alignment of each end fitting across its joint with the hose. They use this to set up the replacement. There is almost no ability to adjust the connections more than a mm or two. It has to be exact in length and rotational angles. This marking must be done on the car as there is a good chance that a leaky joint will twist during removal.
Peter
Exception: On my '83, the A/C hose that went across the top of the engine from firewall to fuel cooler was completely fupped to begin with! And I think it was the OEM hose. It had a nasty twist to it. When I rebuilt that hose – myself – I cut a piece of hose to the length that seemed right to me, assembled it all on the car so it sat right, and then tightened up the hose clamps.
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Sorry bad wording on my part. When I say “my shop” I mean the guy I use, he is a great guy who actually stands behind his work and is straight up with you. One of his techs screwed up a persons repair job and he fixed everything at no charge and even covered the original job because his tech messed up. He is the guy I go to. As for pulling the engine and what not. Yes I "can " do that I don’t have a shop just a rather large garage and also I don’t need the car to drive, this is just a toy car now I have my pickup to drive daily. The reason I take my cars to a shop even though I know how to do something and can do a lot of the work myself is simple. Time, I have very little of it so a normal job that would take a shop two or three days would take me a month.
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It was my Dads daily driver for a long time. He bought it in 2003 and drove it everywhere. He LOVED that car. As for how many miles i would have to look I don’t remember, somewhere north of 90K, when he bought it the car had very low miles.
As for the head gasket. There is a lot of what looks like oil coming out of the top left corner. I’m going to deep clean the engine and run her for a bit and check the seals again after. But leaking from between the head and block is not a good thing.
The evaporator has the freon running through it and cools the fins and that is what makes the cold air. You could get dirt or debris stuck in it and that will make corrosion. The corrosion will rust a weld or puncture one of the lines and then the freon leaks out. 9 time out of 10 if the evaporator is leaking there is nor permanent fix other than replacing it.
An evaporator has fins and tubes and can fail in the same way that a condenser coil fails. That is up at the front of the car, so is much more likely to fail. But over time, dissimilar metals and welds give up the ghost.
No permanent stop leak. If you do end up using one, it ends up everywhere, so it can and will complicate future repairs to the system. Best advice is don’t use it, unless you’re planning on getting rid of the car.
I have been following that thread. He is using one he found off of evilbay. It looks completely different from the OEM one. Still waiting for an update to see if it works or not.
Thank you Sir. No I do not live in TX, God I wish I did, maybe if I win the lottery I can afford to move out there LOL I’m in “The People’s Republic of Maryland” the land of the super hard left. To rich to stay, to poor to leave.
I live on the East Coast in Maryland and the humidity is killer here. A/C is a damn good thing to have. I normally don’t really care as I need have the top down to drive comfortably (6’5"), but when it is 100 and up and the rain hits you have to put the top up and you will slowly cook with no air.
ODD question. Would a 1993 evaporator fit into a 1995 XJS? Or did they change everything from one year to the next?
https://www.techchoiceparts.com/inventory/118779-1987-1993-jaguar-xjs-ac-evaporator-core
They have one for a 1995 but it is $300. Might get it “just in case”
https://www.techchoiceparts.com/inventory
I know the feeling. I have a retired friend (wealthy) who moved to MD (Chesapeake Bay area) last year after living her whole life in FL (sounds upside down, right?). Claims she wanted to live where there are FOUR seasons. She loves it there, but sounds like everything is so over-priced, and, as she pointed out, everything is TAXED. My good budette in CT (NOT wealthy) says the same thing there. 
Good site, and good question. WTH is an evaporator for our newer 4.0s 2 1/2 x as much $$ as that for earlier 4.0s and 5.3s ??? 
All I can guess is they changed something for the last 2 years of production? Not sure why it is so much more $$
If they could find a way to Tax the Tax they would. I won’t even go into some of the “progressive” policies they have, they would drive you insane.
My friend in CT told me something that just makes no sense. She said there you basically have to (re-)pay the sales tax on your car each year you re-register it. wth??? She said one year when she moved to a different county, the old county kept “dunning” her for the tax, nevertheless. 
She finally showed them written PROOF she had moved to another county and they finally let her off the hook. 
Here in TX, you just pay the sales tax when you first title the vehicle, and then a registration fee (typically around $75 or so) each year when you re-register it. 
you two are getting close to no politics in the car forums, hopefully you want get chastised by the big cheese
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Naaaa. It’s all good. That is about as far as I go on politics on ANY site. I learned a long time ago don’t actually talk politics unless you are IN Person. On line is a mine field of silliness and an exercise in stupidity.
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