sirreldar

Hey all,
A few issues going on with my truck:

#1 My biggest concern right now is an intermittent whining noise that comes from the engine area, primarily when accelerating. It varies in pitch depending on how much gas I'm giving it. Also drops in pitch/disappears when it shifts up. The whining comes at all speeds (5mph or 75mph and everywhere in between). Also occasionally it will stop abruptly without the tranny shifting. It is very loud. Loud enough that sometimes I check my rearview cuz it sounds like a cops behind me. I cannot seem to reproduce the sound while in park, neutral, or reverse which may seem to indicate a transmission issue although it could be a coincidence. Ive read suggestions on similar issues that it could be the front wheel bearings but I doubt that its this since the pitch varies with engine/tranny speed and not wheel speed. I also read it could be caused by a multitude of power steering problems although there I am not steering when I hear the sound (I topped of the PS fluid anyway but it didnt help). Finally, from the drivers seat, if I had to guess it sounds like it comes from the front passenger side. Like I mentioned, the sound comes and goes, I can go days without hearing it, other times, I hear it 5-10 times a day. It seems to happen more frequently the colder it is and now that I think about it the sound started when it started getting cold out.

2# If I remove the air filter cover the filter it is covered on the inside with what appears to be a gasoline/oil mixture. The air filter smells like straight gasoline. Also the injectors and pretty much everything inside is covered with black sooty residue. I cleaned it out about a month ago using carb cleaner but its covered again I doubt this is normal, and the guy at autozone didnt think so. He said it could be the PCV valve that would cause too much oil to enter the TBI. Google was surprisingly unhelpful showing me where the PCV valve was. I didnt know oil even went into the TBI but there is a tube going from next to where you add engine oil up to the back of the TBI so I guess it adds engine oil to the fuel/air mixture??

3# Once or twice immediately after I start it, all the gauges go crazy bouncing back and forth, the headlights get really bright and the radio dies. after 2-3 seconds the gauges/headlights return to normal and the radio comes back on but it reset all stations. It also reset the AC/Heat system. I'm guessing this would be an alternator issue.

I read a whining noise could be caused by a soon-to-fail alternator so maybe 1 and 3 are related? I replaced the transmission about 8 months ago with one I pulled from the junkyard. It shifts fine (except 1st to 2nd is a tad rough). There's a little seeping leakage around the tranny seal and from the engine oil filter but nothing super crazy. I left it parked for a week over Christmas and there was 1 drop of tran fluid and 3 of engine oil. All the fluids are topped off. I have a CEL for the EGR system. I googled EGR and from what I read it doesnt sound like it could cause any of the issues I'm having.

Sorry I know I probably sound pretty mechanically illiterate (which I am) so please forgive my ignorance. Any help on any of these issues would be GREATLY appreciated. Also please dont flame that my truck has so many problems. I've only had it about 9 months and it's previous owner(s) seemed to have not taken well care of it.

Thanks all again VERY VERY much