Narrative:

We were cleared for takeoff and pushed the power up and hit to/GA. The engines accelerated normally at first; but then we both noticed the no. 1 engine stopped at 86.5%; while no. 2 accelerated normally to 95.5%. I pushed the no. 1 thrust lever up manually but the engine remained stuck at 86.5%. At that point; we were approaching 100 knots and the aircraft was accelerating normally so I continued the takeoff. On departure we notified ATC of the problem and requested a level off so we could run the [appropriate] checklist. After running the checklist and pulling the power back; both engines had normal indications. At that point we requested a climb to see if we could get full power. The same issue occurred. We called dispatch and maintenance control to see if they had any ideas. They had no preference on whether we continued or not. I remembered that there was a writeup from earlier in the day where the no. 1 engine had shut down on its own right after start (the reason we were late); so the first officer and I elected to return to [departure airport] since we didn't trust the engine. Return and landing were uneventful. We did land 100 pounds overweight and included that in the writeup.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: The flight crew of a Boeing 737 reported that one engine would not produce full power on takeoff roll.

Narrative: We were cleared for takeoff and pushed the power up and hit TO/GA. The engines accelerated normally at first; but then we both noticed the No. 1 engine stopped at 86.5%; while No. 2 accelerated normally to 95.5%. I pushed the No. 1 thrust lever up manually but the engine remained stuck at 86.5%. At that point; we were approaching 100 knots and the aircraft was accelerating normally so I continued the takeoff. On departure we notified ATC of the problem and requested a level off so we could run the [appropriate] checklist. After running the checklist and pulling the power back; both engines had normal indications. At that point we requested a climb to see if we could get full power. The same issue occurred. We called Dispatch and Maintenance Control to see if they had any ideas. They had no preference on whether we continued or not. I remembered that there was a writeup from earlier in the day where the No. 1 engine had shut down on its own right after start (the reason we were late); so the First Officer and I elected to return to [departure airport] since we didn't trust the engine. Return and landing were uneventful. We did land 100 pounds overweight and included that in the writeup.

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.