'75 CJ5. Coolant draining?

I have a '75 CJ5, V8. I've only had it for a few months and noticed a problem this evening.

I hadn't driven it in a couple of weeks so I thought I'd warm it up and take a little spin. Runs fine but when I shut it down I noticed steam coming from under the hood.

It seems coolant was dripping out of what I think is the place where the water drain hose (should be) connected, onto the exhaust pipes. It looks like I have two hoses conected for the heating system and a smaller connection in the middle, a little below, that is leaking coolant.

It's stopped as the engine cooled. Anybody know why it's doing this? Is this just an overflow or something I should be concerned about?

I'm wondering because I've been driving it every weekend since I bought it in June and this is the first time this has happened. The only differences I see are that it's cooler out now (low 40's in the morn) and I haven't driven it in a while.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

 

PIC? I have a overflow off the radiator. Rigged up a catch bottle for that.

 

My 75 was drooling coolant out the overflow. I installed a catch bottle, that I bought at 4WD.com. Was fairly cheap and fixed the problem..

 

sounds like the hose connections to or the heater core may be leaking

 

Here's a picture of the connection I'm talking about. Tough to get a good shot. The hoses to the right and left are for the heating system. battery is to the immediate right. The connection that was leaking is the small black one in between the heater hoses.

I started it again this evening and got it up to temp. No leak.

Any ideas as to what it might have been doing?

Appreciate the opinions!

 

pretty sure that's the heater core drain hose
if a leak develops in the core inside the housing, the coolant drains out the hose.
You could also have a leak around the hose clamps, which could leak into the housing from the outside, following the core outlets the hoses attach to.
Care/caution must be followed when tightening/loosening the hose clamps and hoses; the outlets are soldered to the core, and can be damaged while attempting to loosen/tighten the clamps. or removing or installing the hoses.
This leak may only occur when the system is pressurized, such as after shutting the engine off when warm.

 

Thanks!!! That makes sense. It only started leaking after I shut it down. You think I should look into a new heater core or housing?

 

I would check the hoses and clamps first before you tear it down
look for signs of leakage going into the core area
if nothing visible, it could only be the core leaking
IMO