disabled mom needs QUICK advice!! PLEASE?

Hello! Can anyone help me out advice wise on a 1990 Jeep Laredo 4wd that I need to decide to buy or not- in a hurry?
My question: This Jeep has 189,000 miles, and is a super clean, gorgeous family owned rig that has always ran great...suddenly the engine now makes a "clunking noise" and although the Jeep will still start and run, it runs slowly...
Any ideas? I have the chance to get this BEAUTY and I mean gorgeous Jeep for a song and dance, but is a valve job or head gasket or cam hard to fix or expensive? I have a mechanic to do the work LABOR FREE, but because he is willing to do anything for me, I dont want it to be something TREACHEROUS that I bring to him...can u help? thanks

Then I suggest you have him look at it. He can examine thoroughly and help you decide. Any worked needed should come as no big surprise to him.

^Yep^

Well, you'll need to be a bit more descriptive about your clunking.

Does it clunk while the engine is running but in park?

Does it clunk once or repeatedly? If repeats, does it change with the engine speed?

Does it only clunk when you put it into gear?

Does it clunk while your driving? If so, does it change speed with when you drive?

Anything else you can do to describe the noise would be helpful.

You may want to look elsewhere; think about it: 189K, and the vehicle is nearly 20 years old.

Meh... have your mechanic friend do a good visual inspection. I mean steering system, electrical (Both under the hood and in the cabin), cooling, etc...

A 1990 Cherokee Laredo is about $1000 to $1500. If you can get it for a good bit less than this, then find out how much it will cost to fix. The 4.0L engine can easily last 250K miles if you don't let any problems get out of hand.