The report mentions (p.65) that the crew of a company sister MD-83 plane was aware of serious issues with one of the engines :
The crew noticed slow acceleration of the No. 1 Engine in the previous flight legs. The Captain asked the ground Engineer to ride with him in the cockpit to monitor the subject Engine. During acceleration check at the threshold, the crew observed that left engine took thirty seconds (30 sec) to accelerate from idle rpm to 58-60% N2 instead of 6 seconds as recommended by the M.M. (from ground Idle to 1.4 EPR).
5N-SAI was the latest incident in the Airline regarding engine failure to respond to throttle movement. This led to the discovery of two fuel manifolds enclosing primary and secondary fuel supply lines in the fan air discharge section located approximately 5 o’clock position, which were
found not to have conformed to standard configuration, resulting in the secondary supply line being severed.
Maintenance issues, or engines long past their sell-by date?