The smell is sweet. I can tell it is adding some flavor. The smoke is real dark when it is coming up to temp compared to hickory. That is probably just the way white oak burns though.
I changed out the pan to a ECB charcoal pan and added about 6 cups of sand. I wanted to know if more sand was better or not. Best I can tell there is not much difference. It handles pretty good though. I have had no kind of temp spike at all.