1994 Camry V6 Overheating Issue

Hi,

The car's been driving fine for months, however in the last few days it's started reading overheating after about 30miles of driving to the point that the temperature gauge will sit at about 3/4.

It stays like this when the car is sitting idle after I have parked up. However I've noticed that it also appears to be making a kind of whining/droning noise as well, almost as though something is grating on something else. It seems to be coming from the side of the engine where the plastic cover is for the belt, at least that's where it sounds most prominent.

Not an expert mechanic by any stretch of the imagination, but the coolant is sitting just under full with Toyota's own coolant, I watched underneath the car for ten minutes or so after I drove home one night and there's no evidence of anything leaking to the ground, nor can I see any sign of leakage in the engine bay itself, everything looks pretty clean.

To be honest, I'm worried it might be a head gasket issue, or something else I don't know enough about. The main fan on the radiator seems to be spinning ok at what I presume to be the right sort of speed.

Apart from all this the car runs perfectly well with steering, power and everything else normal.

Does anyone have any ideas I can check before I take it be looked at? The noise in particular is worrying..

Thanks for any advice.

Andrew