1994 Camry groaning noise?

[2JZ-3VZ]

G'day all

I'm trying to pinpoint an odd noise that occurs when i rev too 2500-3000RPM (There abouts). It happens in every gear (except nuetral and park), no matter if the car it hot or cold or doesn't seem to be any louder under a big load (like pulling up a hill slowly). The car is the 3VZ-FE v6 model (and FYI im from australia )

The sound is hard to describe, its like a deep groaning/vibrating sort of noise (i think the best noise i can associate it too is when you do a stall test on an auto, that groaning noise from the auto, though its a bit louder + gets slightly louder as it heads for 3000rpm then just stops) and its been since the car came into my hands about a year ago.

Most people i've asked seem to think its in the gearbox (purely because of the above i'd think), i havn't noticed any decrease in the cars power or anything, and i would think, due to the type/age of the car, if it were in the auto/torque converter, it wouldn't be worth the cost too me to chase (after all the car does have 240k km's on the clock, i've had it since 200k km's)

Though i recently found that my top engine mount is shredded (i usually regularly check the motor over, most weekends, but last few weeks have been pretty busy and these things take a back seat, and yeah i'd say its been dead for a couple of weeks now, i'm replacing it this weekend aslong as i can source the part tomorrow), and it made me wonder if the transmission mount was dead also, could it possibly be causing this noise at the specific rpm?

is there any pictures around that show all of the V6's mounts? so i know where/what to look for exactly ? Is there any easy way to check these mounts? Like with the top mount you can pretty well tell if its dead (or do a quick stall test will definitely pinpoint a dead mount), is there anything like this i can perform on a gearbox mount?

And finally, i noticed a slight "putting" noise coming from the rear of the motor (the rear bank used to leak oil before i did the rocker cover gaskets and i was checking down there at the time). The noise occurs just off idle, very deep sort of "putting" noise, off the top of my head the noise sounds similar to a car with a small hole in its exhaust. Has anyone ever heard of this as a common problem? Would the exhaust have been at risk (unusual stresses) driving around with a dead top mount (and possibly transmission mount?) or would it just move with the motor in most cases? I must say im not the lightest footed driver to ever grace the streets so im actually pretty worried about damage done due to the crook mount

...bloody cars

[2JZ-3VZ]

No one has any thoughts?

I did the dog bone support yesterday, took all about 5 mins.

Borred a hoist and stuck the car up and had a look at the exhaust and everything, all looks good as far as i can tell. Though i once again have an oil leak from the rear rocker covers (infact, about every 4-5 months i have to retighten the rocker cover bolts as they work them selves loose, cause a slight oil leak in the reak bank (between the two middle bolts), its like a small river that runs down the head/block onto the exhaust which is no doubt the cause of the oil burning smell (though it must be only a tiny bit as i never notice any noticable oil drop when i check the oil). I may have to take them all out and lock-tight them in, is this the norm? I'm a bit iffy about doing it cause i wouldn't want to snap them/strip the thread should they need removing in future....

Anyway, i checked around (quickly as my borred time on the hoist was running out) and i could only see the front engine mount, that looks a little like a shock absorber near the radiator, and it looks ok but i suspect it'd be one of those mounts that you wouldn't know till you remove it. I couldn't see the others, where are they?

Driving it around (drove it out to my sisters yesterday, about a 40-50 min drive) and i must say the gearbox groan isn't as pronounced as it was before (still in the same rev range just not at loud, 90% of the time you won't hear it over the stereo at a decent listening level + music playing), So im starting to lean towards another broken/damaged or possible loose? mount around the gearbox.

Any thoughts/things to check/etc on the geearbox noise would be great (even random theories would be good at this point :P)