Grease...

[air-tech]

I agree with the previous posts that the grease isn't absolutely necessary for preventing chain fires.

+1 on that - it's all about lubrication.

In my case, there's a very thick layer of semolina on top of the powder

I used to use that but the balls tended to self-jam, a ring of compressed semo would form in the chambers and then any further balls would not want to seat - so I turned to polenta (ground maize) - just as useful, slightly less fine and no ring issues. In my (also Hege - very nice!) remy I put the powder in, then filled the cyl to overflowing with polenta, (using a gearbox oil litre container with the extendible spout - a second's job) gave it a twirl to make it flush, and found that the balls would compress perfectly to just a smidgen below flush.

HTH