Makerbot Replicator 2X Rebuild, advice or suggestions

Greetings:

I am an engineering student and through my program I aquired a Replicator 2X. It's a long story, but a previous student took the extruder assembly. The new dual extruder assembly through Makerbot is about 330 bucks.

Otherwise the printer appears to be fine, the print timer registers 2 hours total.

If I am going to replace the extruder assembly, is there a better way than through makerbot? Any aftermarket upgrades I should look into while I am at this stage?

Anything I should be aware of before proceeding? Im pretty new to 3d printing, but am fairly tech savvy and mechanically inclined.

Thanks