This past March of 2026 we took a "Bucket List" trip to the small town of Mena, Arkansas, located in the U.S. Interior Highlands and surrounded by the Ouachita National Forest. Mena's population was only 5,589 as of the 2020 census and doesn't look to be much larger today.

Mena is not only the gateway to some of the most visited tourist attractions in Arkansas, but home of BRODIX Cylinder Heads, Blocks and Manifolds.

We've had the pleasure to work with BRODIX and the Brotherton Family for the past 16 years with advertising and using their products on our own race cars and we are very excited to share with you their story.

BRODIX originated from a jobbing foundry owned by Francis Dix (the DIX in BRODIX), and at the time they produced all types of high quality aluminum castings in the 1960's. Francis Dix came to Mena, Arkansas in 1960 from Chicago.  His main goal was to raise dairy cattle, but he had grown up in the foundry industry.  The dairy cattle business did not work out the way he expected, so he decided to start an aluminum foundry from scratch in Mena.

J.V. Brotherton (the BRO in BRODIX) was a hot rodder who met Francis and Dorothy Dix's daughter Paula where she was going to college in Fort Smith, Arkansas for nursing. After Paula graduated college, JV moved to Mena where he went to work with Paula's Father Francis Dix at the foundry. As the US domestic manufacturing started to decline, they struggled profitably for years making parts for large companies. JV decided the best way to become more profitable and successful was to manufacture their own products and since he had a passion for cylinder heads, the decision was made and that's where BRODIX Cylinder Heads were born. (Read the full foundry story here)

Today BRODIX Cylinder Heads, Blocks and Manifolds are well known "world wide" as producers of the most innovative, highest quality racing heads and blocks available.

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Through the years JV continued to grow the BRODIX name and his family along with his wife Paula.  They have 3 children, 2 sons, Jeff and Greg and a daughter Jennifer who now own and continue to operate the company as JV & Paula have reached retirement. (Read the full family story here)

Spending most of our day with Greg and getting to take the full tour of the facility, you could really feel the growth of the facility and business over the course of nearly 60 years, as we walked through the expansions and additions of the buildings. Like all long term business facilities you could see how they adapted and added on as needed to what now covers around 60,000 square feet of manufacturing and assembly, not including the foundry which I'd estimate to be another 20-30,000 sqft.

Above you will see how the history of this company has held strong for nearly 60 years with an old FM Dix Co building where the patterns were once created is still standing on the corner of the property.  Also some of the original Mills are still in operation today within the BRODIX facility and have been prioritized to single function operations which are still utilized efficiently on certain products.

Over the course of time BRODIX has grown to employ over 75 employees and includes a complete engine machine shop for research and development, a full size Dyno facility for testing, and now utilizes from best guess around 50 plus CNC mills, lathes and turning centers along with 3) 5-axis Centroid CNC machining centers for cylinder head porting.

Certainly the most fascinating part of the tour / experience was the time we got to spend in the foundry part of the company, which resides right across the street from the main manufacturing facility and offices.

BRODIX'S in-house pattern shop, foundry, and heat treatment facility ensures complete quality control in the production of their cylinder heads, blocks, and manifolds without having to rely on outside sources for supply. They are the only aftermarket cylinder head and block manufacturer that brings to market their products starting from raw aluminum ingots in house.

As you can imagine, BRODIX consumes a huge amount of raw aluminum in ingot form on a daily basis in their manufacturing process.  This stack of 50lb ingots is just a small portion of the 50,000 lbs that BRODIX consumes each month pouring cylinder heads, blocks and intake manifolds.

One of the most fascinating processes is how the sand is formed from a pattern for the internals of a cylinder head.  Above is a BRODIX BR3 cylinder head casting mold which you can see the intake and exhaust runners along with some of the water pockets.  The aluminum will be poured around this leaving what you see open and will eventually get shaken out to leave the cylinder head casting.

Once the patterns are placed in the molds of dark sand, in this case 2 cylinder heads, the pour process begins in an orchestrated process by the foundry workers. Molten aluminum from the melted ingots are poured in a continuous fashion into the pour holes and push out the riser holes in order to alleviate any air pockets which would create porosity in the castings. These overpours also allow metal to be pulled back in as the casting begins to cool.

Once the castings are poured they are allowed to sit about 30 minutes to cool and set up before the outer housing is removed and then moved over to the shakeout station where both sands are removed.

The shake out station shown below is where the casting sands are removed and reveal the actual castings with the risers still attached before they are cut off and prepared for hardening and machining.

We could tell BRODIX is a BIG part of the small town of Mena, Arkansas and could feel the vibe and pride of all the workers as we toured the facility.  It was truly clear everyone had their place and took pride in their job and the company they work for.

We hope you enjoyed an inside look and some historic detail about this great company as much as we did. I'd also say if you're looking for a change of pace from your current lifestyle or place of living and have interest or talent, these guys are always looking for employees and Mena might be the place for you!

You can read more about the complete history of BRODIX and the Brotherton legacy HERE at JV's Corner