Whining Noise During Hard Acceleration - Transmission Problem

[2002Silver4.6is]

I have a whining noise coming from the engine compartment under hard acceleration. It is definitely a new sound that was not present until recently.

I did a search and read about a few guys with whistling coming from the 3.0 but this is more of a whine than a whistle. Kind of sounds like the sound of a supercharger!!

Could it be the water pump bearings? or the belt drive for the compressor or the water pump?? For that matter it could be bearings on the compressor.

Anyone else had this problem in the past??? Might have to take it in to the local indy servce station around here.