Allow me to alay some of your fears
Not ALL tensioners on the Camshaft drive CHAIN tensioners fail, the issue has come to light because of a production change on the ratchet pawl pressure spring. The spring has been increased from .3mm back to .5mm thickness. If it was forecast to be a widespread problem a batch of vehicles would/will be recalled for a field service action as replacement of the tensioner is much cheaper in the long run than a repair to the cylinder head. Your friend will no doubt let you know about these voulantry recalls.
Ford as a manufacturer don't have to inform anyone of production changes. It's part of a standard policy of continuous change and improvement. A warranty is provided for customers in the event of a failure...it's not a guarentee that things won't go wrong from time to time.
Re the fuel pump, are you suggesting the was an issue which took a year to sort out on your vehicle, or all VP30 and VP44 injection pumps. AFAIK, other manufacturers used the same pump and suffered exactly the same failure rate.
I'm not trying to defend Transit or Ford motor company here, but sometimes things are a little different when you see the other side of the story.
