About 2 weeks ago I noticed that when idling the whole engine would move around very choppy-like. Checked all injection wires and spark plug. Over the weekend replaced the fuel filter and put a bunch of injection cleaner in the tank. Haven’t noticed much of a difference with about half the fuel tank gone through now. This morning I noticed a lot of white exhaust coming out which is out of the norm. Checked for signs of a blown head gasket and everything seems fine there. It seems like when it’s giving me trouble if I turn the car off for about a minute then turn it back on, it doesn’t act up at all. Any ideas or help is much appreciated

 

Compression? Air leaks? (intake manifold gasket?) Electrical connections to the injectors? What does the distributor cap look like inside? Can you isolate a specific cylinder that might be miss firing at idle? (disconnect injectors one at a time and listen for the drop in idle speed - if you disconnect an injector and the idle speed does not change - that cylinder is not firing at idle)

 

White smoke from exhaust is a typical sign of coolant getting into the combustion. How did you check for signs of a blown head gasket?

 

You have an engine misfire due to something. Head gaskets are tricky to diagnose correctly as they separate compression from coolant from oil and you can get some pretty bizarre combinations of symptoms. Most common is the oil in water scenario but it's not the only one. Take a leak down/ compression test to be sure. You may also have a burned valve which will cause idle misfire, clear up at higher RPM.

 

Some things to always check if you have a rough idle, no matter if you get that white smoke...

Clean the throttle body, you can use WD-40 or brakecleaner, over time dirt gets trapped and hinders it from closing all the way, it's barely. Make sure that the throttle wings shut properly, otherwise the idle motor won't kick in. When the throttle body closes, you should hear a faint click from it, but a dirty throttle body can still cause problems even when you hear a click.

Also check that the fuel pressure regulator isn't broken, there shouldn't be any gasoline coming out of it if you disconnect the hose.

And idle air control:
Of course there are other things to check, but these often get missed!