Ok, this may sound stupid, but I've recently been watching my temp gauge climb to overheating. Figured it was the t-stat going. Decided to replace it. Followed the upper rad hose to engine and opened what i thought was the t-stat housing (3 bolts, big rad hose going into it) remove the bolts and ta-da, no t-stat! Am I missing something? All I have to go off of is a Haynes manual. Better than nothing but not all that helpful in this case. Also, the replacement I picked up from AutoZone seems way to big to fit in there anyway. Any help would be appreciated. Gotta fix this ASAP.

It should be just above and to the left of the water pump. The fan is attached to the water pump, so it might be in the way.

I'll check my 2wd 4cyl. On my V6 the bottom coolant hose is the feed line and the top hose is the return fluid line.