My car is equipped with a m22 is it common that the trany whines 1st though 3rd ?

Yes. The source of the noise is the gears themselves. In an M22, the gears are cut at less of an angle, and this creates noise, but adds strength. The noise is less in 4th gear because the power does not flow through the gears, it goes directly from input shaft to the output shaft.

There's a reason why the M22 was nicknamed 'rockcrusher'. They are tough and they whine like a med/hd. truck transmission.