so far:
Swapped coilpacks-no change, pulled the plugs- looked fine, check the injector wires for cracks-looked fine...
Stopped by a local vintage Mercedes repair shop...he said could be the fuel distributor failing to #3..once I told him that after a shutoff-on the problem typically went away...that floored him...
Back to ground zero
At this point I am going to pull it into my garage...remove the hood and start looking from scratch......not sure what to do anymore....but now the misfire is continual and no longer "clears itself"........comments always welcome.......