no thermostat, help

So...i was replacing my thermostat cuz my temp gauge says my jeep normally runs at 110 degrees (even in the summer) and my neighbor said that wasnt right. after i drained the cooling system and took off the hose thing to the front of the engine, i noticed that there was no thermostat. so i put my new one in along with a new gasket seal. after tightening up the bolts i heard leaking and it was dripping out of the seal on the bottom. i tightened till i could no longer tighten and it didnt help at all. any suggestions? and whats up with the no thermostat? its a 87 - 4.0 - aw4. tia

maybe too tight

Same thing happened to me.
Turns out I had over tightened the thing-- yeah that's right, I busted the little housing.
Also, make sure the thermostat stays in place when you start tightening those bolts-- very common for it to move off-center, and then of course you're nowhere.
It'll cool better with a new thermostat, removing it was somebody's bad call

Engine NEEDS that thermostat to slow the water down on it's trip through. If the coolant is going through too fast it won't pick up the heat and carry it to the radiator. That's why you were reading 110. Hope you didn't crack the housing.

Remove the housing, clean off both surfaces. Using a bottle of 'Indian Head Gasket cememt' coat the surface, put the gasket on and let it dry on there, put a small amount of the indian head gasket cememt around where the thrmostat goes and put it in with the small vent hole at the top, let it dry. put a coat of Indian head on the head area, let it dry. Put the bolt thru the housing and put anti=seize on the ends of the bolts, put some indian head aroung the base of the bolts, let it dry a while. Install and torque.