The clunk is when I'm going straight down the road. This is where the collar sits as of right now.
And yes I tightened up the lock ring before driving it lol.
Right now the fender sits about 27.5". When I turned it down to 26" the spring had a slight amount of contact when the weight of the car was on it,but when the tire was let down just a little the spring would unseat and rattle around. I wouldn't think I'd have to get a 12" spring to go lower, would I?
Talked to Strange about it and they said 10" 350lbs was too much unless I have a big block (has he seen the size of a mod motor?) , and that he recommended a 12 or 14 at 175lbs. That sounds waaaay too soft for me. This isn't a drag car...
Well it looks like you should have ton more adjustment. And lowering the collar should mean that the car sits lower - the spring should continue to provide pressure. If you lower the collar, and the spring becomes loose, that essentially means the strut has bottomed out. Otherwise, the car would sit lower and the spring will have tension. So it sounds like you might have an issue with the strut? 26" should be no problem, I'm currently sitting at like ~26.5" and can go lower if I want.
-Or-
When you crank down on the collar, and the car is sitting on the ground, is the spring tight? But if you hit a bump, it becomes loose? There's something you can do - you can run a helper spring or a tender spring. I'm running a helper spring on my rear coil-overs; I'm pretty sure you can run them on the front as well. This will keep your spring from unseating in a droop situation.
350 lbs isn't too much or it could be, depends on what you do with your car. If you track it, then 350 is not too much. If it's a DD street car, then maybe 250 to 275 or so would be better. 175 lbs seems too soft to me. And running a longer spring, 12 or 14", is effectively the same thing as using a helper spring. FWIW, my car is a track car that also sees some street driving (though it is not my DD), and I'm running 375 lbs 10" coils up front. Now, maybe 350 lbs is too much for the Strange struts to handle, that I don't know.
I'd try taking one of 1/2" spacers out from underneath the c/c plate and placing it on top. You shouldn't be contacting the shock tower unless your camber is extremely positive. With your set up now, you may be bottoming out the shock before the spring is actually compressing. Try adding one of the spacers up top and see if it helps.
Edit: coilovers don't require as high of a spring rate due to their mounting location, the further out on the a-arm provides a longer lever arm and doesn't require as much force...if that makes sense.
He can remove spacers as long as the hat doesn't contact the CC plates/bolts. If removing the spacer causes contact, then he can't really remove the spacer, it sort of needs to be there.
And that is correct, coil-overs don't require that high of a spring rate, but 175 is pretty soft for the fronts. A "stock position" spring running 800 lbs or 900 lbs is not unheard of for cars that like the corners while still keeping reasonable street manners. And equivalent coil-over would be around the 200 to 225 range (please take this with a grain of salt). Dedicated track cars, depending on setup, will run over 400 lbs coil-overs. 175 seems to be more of a drag setup to me. One of the advantages of the coil-over is the ability to run a stiffer spring without the negative effects of an equivalently stiff spring on the stock setup. IMO, if you are going to run 175 lbs coil-overs or thereabouts, you are probably better off sticking to regular springs. It will be cheaper, and if you want to go lower just cut a coil off or something.