Narrative:

Upon arrival in ZZZZ I was notified that the inbound flight had an over temp in level cruise at altitude on the left engine. I called dispatch and they patched me through to [maintenance and mechanic at engine desk]. [Maintenance] informed me that the engine only went up to 1032 degrees for less than 15 seconds so no action was required. [Maintenance] also notified me that the engine was old and had 34;300 hours on it and was scheduled for an engine wash. The inbound crew was also experiencing an over burn of fuel on the left engine approximately 1;000 lbs per hour more than the right engine. The engineers and engine group was not concerned as you are allowed to have up to 10 over temp situations of this type before action needs to be taken I was told. [Maintenance] also said twice that he was confident that we would have an over temp on takeoff but it should not go that high out of ZZZZ. I informed [maintenance] and dispatch that I needed to discuss this issue with my flight crew and line maintenance before I would make the decision to depart. After reaching the cockpit I had a discussion with both the line maintenance mechanic and my 3 first officers. The line maintenance mechanic repeated what I was told by [maintenance] and confirmed that it would be safe to depart. We decided to depart and had a normal start and taxi out. The left engine was running at idle approximately 100 degrees higher than the right engine; which I was told had only 5;600 hours on it. Upon taking the runway and applying power with the toga switch; we had a major spool time difference. The right engine came up to speed normally but the left engine did not. As a result; I believe of the twisting action we received a takeoff configuration gear warning. Prior to advancing the power levers I made sure the main gear trucks were aligned so this warning was a non normal situation. I discontinued the takeoff after only achieving a speed of 30 to 40 knots. We cleared the runway and taxied to a safe and clear area. After clearing I conducted an experiment and brought the power lever on the right engine to approx. 50% range and it took 6 seconds to spool. When I did the same with the left engine it took 13 seconds to spool. I this time I decided to return to the gate. Upon arrival at the gate we shut down the engines and the mechanic came on the plane and showed us the picture that is attached for the left engine. This picture was taken shortly after shutdown. The mechanic believed that we had a fuel controller issue and that the engine was running too rich or that we had a hydro mechanical controller issue for the left engine. As a result the mechanic took the aircraft out of service and said it needed to be borro-scoped. The flight cancelled and my in-flight crew departed and then my flight crew and I moved the aircraft to a hardstand under tug control.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: The Captain of a Boeing 777 reported that the #1 engine had an over temp and would not come up to speed as quick as the #2 engine; resulting in a rejected takeoff.

Narrative: Upon arrival in ZZZZ I was notified that the inbound flight had an over temp in level cruise at altitude on the left engine. I called dispatch and they patched me through to [Maintenance and Mechanic at Engine desk]. [Maintenance] informed me that the engine only went up to 1032 degrees for less than 15 seconds so no action was required. [Maintenance] also notified me that the engine was old and had 34;300 hours on it and was scheduled for an engine wash. The inbound crew was also experiencing an over burn of fuel on the left engine approximately 1;000 lbs per hour more than the right engine. The engineers and engine group was not concerned as you are allowed to have up to 10 over temp situations of this type before action needs to be taken I was told. [Maintenance] also said twice that he was confident that we would have an over temp on takeoff but it should not go that high out of ZZZZ. I informed [Maintenance] and dispatch that I needed to discuss this issue with my flight crew and line maintenance before I would make the decision to depart. After reaching the cockpit I had a discussion with both the line maintenance mechanic and my 3 first officers. The line maintenance mechanic repeated what I was told by [Maintenance] and confirmed that it would be safe to depart. We decided to depart and had a normal start and taxi out. The left engine was running at idle approximately 100 degrees higher than the right engine; which I was told had only 5;600 hours on it. Upon taking the runway and applying power with the TOGA switch; we had a major spool time difference. The right engine came up to speed normally but the left engine did not. As a result; I believe of the twisting action we received a Takeoff Configuration Gear warning. Prior to advancing the power levers I made sure the main gear trucks were aligned so this warning was a non normal situation. I discontinued the takeoff after only achieving a speed of 30 to 40 knots. We cleared the runway and taxied to a safe and clear area. After clearing I conducted an experiment and brought the power lever on the right engine to approx. 50% range and it took 6 seconds to spool. When I did the same with the left engine it took 13 seconds to spool. I this time I decided to return to the gate. Upon arrival at the gate we shut down the engines and the mechanic came on the plane and showed us the picture that is attached for the left engine. This picture was taken shortly after shutdown. The mechanic believed that we had a fuel controller issue and that the engine was running too rich or that we had a hydro mechanical controller issue for the left engine. As a result the mechanic took the aircraft out of service and said it needed to be borro-scoped. The flight cancelled and my in-flight crew departed and then my flight crew and I moved the aircraft to a hardstand under tug control.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.