In my owners manual, the capacity for oil and filter change is listed as 4.8 quarts.
This is the 2009 ecotec.
Seemed like a lot of oil for that small an engine but that is what it says. So, even if that was a misprint, if I put 4.8 quarts in it ( and that was too much) wouldn't you think it would show too much oil on the dipstick rather than too little? I agree with the poster who said, with this internal cartridge filter it doesn't seem possible to put oil in the filter beforehand. I will have to investigate and make sure the 4.8 quarts is correct but how low would the oil on the dipstick be if I was only adding 4 quarts. I have gone about 4k miles between changes and haven't really seen any movement on the level on the dipstick during that time.
Thanks again for all the imput.
I have been changing my own oil for about 40 years and haven't run into this kind of puzzler before.