Bicycle Mechanics - Grease - reidiculously noob bike mechanic question

Okay, this is actually a serious, though very bike mechanic noobish, question. Laugh all you want, but serious responses appreciated.

I'm replacing a quill stem with a longer one. Instructions on the Net say to grease the new one before installing - makes sense except I have no idea what type of grease to use or where to get it.

So far all I've needed for my less-than-five-months-old-bike lube-wise has been oil.

Grease type I should get? Source? (would Ace Hardware, Walmart, Lowe's or Home Depot have this?)

Thanks.

any automotive section or automotive store should have a tube of marine grade bearing grease. (it's green and smells like mold) It's better if you get the one in a tube with a tip you can cut off, rather than the stuff in a tub where you'll need a knife or finger to spread it over parts.

It's good for all parts of the bike, except carbon bits.

I don't recommend synthetic PTFE or white lithium grease, because they seem to dry out and harden quicker.

A lot of possibilities. You could get some Phil Wood grease, the green stuff, at your LBS, or other bike specific grease. Or you could pick up some automotive wheel bearing grease, a small cheap amount will do. Either would work on wheel bearings, headset bearings, bottom bracket bearings, pedal bearings, etc.

The right stuff to keep assemblies from freezing together is antiseize lube.

Thanks for the quick responses. I figured it was a simple and obvious answer.

All that other stuff is for lubricating moving parts. If you tighten a stem pretty good, the tension it's under will slowly squeeze any liquid lube from the contact points. You want antiseize, which is a paste of metal powder in oil because the low strength metal particles will stay in between the parts indefinitely but don't have enough strength or chemical similarity to steel to cause seizure.

It's also a very small, low cost tube.

So often there's factors that need to be looked at.

Yes, anti sieze is a common material for stationary joints. But anti seize is a metallic powder in a carrier of oil. The oil can wash away due to rain or splashing over the years. On the other hand I've had the water resistant green synthetic marine grease last for years and still be in place on a seat post or quill stem just because it doesn't wash away like a thinner carrier oil can do.

Ideally I suppose we'd all have a bunch of libricant and anti seize options on the shelf. But if I had to "make do" with just one oil and one grease then my grease of choice would be the green boat trailer grease.

...anti seize is a metallic powder in a carrier of oil. The oil can wash away due to rain or splashing...You don't need it. The metal powder accomplishes the antiseize action.

Actually, it probably flows away because any joint which is under tension will cause any fluid to seep away, at least from under the high spots.