Had what tunred out to be one of those "stupid" moments this past Sunday. I was running down the lake about 35mph. throttled up to 40 got two quick beeps and the engine shut down. after about 45 minutes and a phone to a mechanic he had me check seveal things and then ask me to check the safty lanyard. It was still attached but i must have bumped it or moved my arm to much because it was loose. So the question is are the two beeps normal when the kill switch is pulled while running? I am concerned there might be a short in the switch and am wondering about replacing it just to be safe. making a long run this weekend and i dont want any problems.

Any time I pulled my kill switch, the motor just shuts off. No beeps.

If your 496 set off two beeps and then shuts down, it was not caused by the lanyard switch unless maybe the lanyard switch connection was making an intermittant contact and you where getting a beep for the engine electrical being re-energized after going off and right back on.
Be careful here though as the shut down could have been from a serious fault code condition in the engine that was shutting the engine down as part of the "guardian" strategy.

Might not hurt ot have the ECM scanned for trouble code faults and see whats there both active and in history.
Obviously tighten or repair the lanyard switch as needed and see if the problem goes away.

Best Regards,
Ray @ Raylar

Thanks Ray, I plan to have the ecm scanned tomorrow jsut to be safe. I was thinking kill switch because while i was trying to determine the problem i turned the key on a few times and got no beep and the fuel pumps did not make their noise. once i removed and replaced the lanyard i got the beep when i turned the key, pumps primed and the engine started. i ran in from that point at 60 mph and about 4300 rpm which is almost WOT on my boat, top end trimmed out is 4500 rpm and about 64 on the wish-o-meter.

Sounds about right.
I would also say you are running the engine with a little to much top rpm lugging based on your numbers.
You should be able to pull that engine to about 4800-4900 rpms with a light load, clean bottom and proper prop setup. Running it at 4500 rpms topped out and trimmed out is close to lugging the engine and is not the best long term for the engine. Might want to take about an inch of pitch out of that prop or so. Just a thought.

Best Regards,
Ray @ Raylar