Should I apply grease to the BB and crank interfaces of my Shimano Octilink Crankset?

No. If you apply anything at all, it should be extremely minimal. The interface should be clean of oils, grits, paints, etc. to ensure it seats propperly. If it has lubricant on it, it will cause the arm to ride up on the tapers potentially too far.
The bolt should be greased or anti-sieze compounded and the bolt should be torqued to the specification. (usually 35-45 ft-lbs.). The importance of the measured torque wrench is often downplayed.

But if you don't have access to a torque wrench, you don't have much of a choice...

I will not downplay that, but it is only 35 bucks to get one at Sears.

This question comes up frequently, and some do, some don't. I do grease the spindle/crank arm interface on my ISIS cranks. See:

https://www.parktool.com/repair_help/...dle_type.shtml

The OctaLink crank is not on a taper, it's splined and should be greased liberally. The splines, BB shaft, crank bolt threads and inside the self-extractor cover should be greased well. Get thee a torque wrench at Sears ($25-ish dollars) and do the job right.

Octalink cranks come from the Shimano facotry with grease on the splines.
So i say grease 'em

Yep, with Octalink you definitely want to grease the BB/crank interface.

Grease is a no-no only with the old square-taper BB & cranks.

Wrong again.Octalink isn't tapered,should be greased,and even tapered spindles can be greased.

Not really.....There are two tribes,the greasers and the non greasers and neither has been able to kick the other of the island, so just do it your way and let it go.

If you have no torque wrench it's because you have chosen not to buy one. They are not very expensive.

Slather it on the splines! The cranks pull easier when servicing the drivetrain.

And here is a link to the best one: www.sheldonbrown.com/tork-grip

Note that my location says "Sweden".
Maybe they're easy to find and cheap to buy over there, but the cheapest I've found here, with appropriate torque ranges for bike work, costs around (the equivalent of) US$300.

Beam type torque wrenches are a good choice for bicycle work since they are reliable and cheap. You may need to get two different ones to cover the range of torques used on bicycle fasteners. In the USA, beam type torque wrenches cost about $30 each.

I can get larger ones for much less. But they all have lowest values of around 40-60 Nm, which is just above where even the most heavily torqued parts end up, and thus useless.
For sub-40 Nm, there's almost nothing, and what's there is expensive as hell!

newbies beware !

Can you order Park bike tools through your LBS? They have an appropriate wrench. Surely it would be less than US$300.

If not, perhaps Harris Cyclery in the US would ship one to you.

EDIT: xxcycle.com (in France) will sell one to Sweden for 61 Euros plus shipping. Better than US$300.

Still a lot of money, but it is cheaper, I'll give you that.

At the moment, I have around $40 total, so it's damn hard to justify spending all my money, and money I'd have to borrow, on a tool just to tighten two bolts...

Actually both Octalink and ISIS are part spline part taper. They ship components with grease on them so that they don't rust(see: cosmoline). Chains come shipped in grease, but do we use them greased?

last time i checked, my aluminum cranks don't rust....

Smoking carpet again?

Want some, smells great?