…before you crack the base? I had to replace a toilet-and I very gingerly tightened the bolts. How tight are you supposed to make them? Ditto for the bolts that hold the flushtank on-are they supposed to be tigtened to the point where they won’t turn? There can’t be a worse feeling than to hear “crack”!
Snug only. More and you break it. It’s more about keeping it from sliding sideways, and the wax ring is really were the seal is.
You have to get it secure enough to the floor so that it doesn’t rock. Otherwise, the wax seal will work its way loose over time. If the floor is uneven though, you might need to put shims under the base to keep it from rocking. You shouldn’t have to tighten the bolts extremely tight. I’m no expert though, so I can’t tell you if there’s a way to tell just how tight.
I broke a tank once myself, trying to remove a corroded handle. It was surprisingly easy to break.
You seat the toilet solid to the floor first with your weight, and then snug the nuts.
I’m not changing that sentence for you depraved people, just chuckle and live with it.
Ditto - side-to-side to firmly seat the ring. The closet bolts (now you know) just keep the w/c from walking around - use the shortest wrench you’ve got (5-6") and quit when it stops moving with firm pressure - don’t arm wrestle it.
Oh - you do know to put a bead of plumber’s putty in the groove around the bottom of base, right? Another test is stop when the putty squeeze-out is uniform around the base.
For those interested: the putty keeps water out from under the fixture - think mopping the floor.
Firmly remember that very experience when I was a kid “helping” my dad around the house. He gave it “one last turn” before the job was finished.
On the way home with a new toilet, we stopped off at the bar/liq at the end of my street. I couldn’t have been 10. Good times.
To answer the second part of the OP’s question, enough that the tank doesn’t wobble. Some toilets have one or more raised points on the bowl assembly which contact the tank when tank to bowl bolts are properly torqued.
While overtorquing will break the tank and/or bowl, undertorquing can lead to slow seepage along the bolts themselves, or leakage at the tank-to-bowl gasket when the fixture is flushed.