Jaguar Repair: ac-evaporator, chevy conversion, corvette engine

Question
I have been told by an ac man that my evaporator was damaged when a new corvette engine was put in. How can I verify that is truly the problem. If so, does the whole dash need to be removed. I was reading one of your past answers and you said something about cutting part of the firewall away? If that is not possible can you give me a sequence to follow on removing the dash. Thanks a lot.
Roy

Answer
Hi Roy,

If the evaporator was damaged and not repairable at the ports at the fire wall, you will have to remove the dash and the whole AC box. (not a small job) If you need to do that, You should get a service manual before starting. I would never contend to try to cut the firewall to attempt that as cutting the firewall would not help accessing the AC evaporator anyway. You may be referring to the cutting of the heater core pipes to change a heater core but that is also done inside and no part of the firewall is damaged.

They must have done major damage to the expansion valve to have done any damage to the evaporator pipes.

I am guessing that this car is a Jaguar of some kind as you didn't tell me what kind of car it is. A Chevy conversion is a common conversion for the V-12 and some six cylinders too. I had a close friend that did many and they make a great conversion but it sounds like your crew was to rough to have damaged the AC pipes.

Howard