The purpose of this work is to characterize biodiesel (i.e. methyl esters, MEs) produced from linoleic and oleic sunflower oils (LSO and OSO, respectively) by alkali transesterification with methanol and CaO as a heterogeneous catalyst under different reaction parameters. The parameters investigated were the methanol/oil molar ratio (4.5:1, 6:1, 7.5:1, 9:1 and 12:1) and the mass ratio of CaO to oil (2% and 3%). The physical and chemical properties of the feedstocks and MEs, like density at 15oC, kinematic viscosity at 40oC, acid value, iodine value, saponification value, cetane index, fatty acid (methyl ester) composition, were determined in order to investigate the effects of LSO and OSO properties and reaction parameters on the product characteristics, yields and purity. The properties of feedstock had decisive effect on the physical and chemical properties of MEs as majority of them did not differ significantly under studied reaction conditions. The MEs produced generally met the criteria required for commercial biodiesel; in fact, the only exception was in the case of iodine value of ME produced from LSO. The product yields only slightly changed with the applied conditions; the highest yield (99.22%) was obtained for ME-LSO produced at 6 mol% methanol to oil ratio, while the lowest one (93.20%) was for ME-OSO produced under the lowest methanol/oil molar ratio (4.5:1). The applied catalyst amounts had similar influence on the oil conversion to biodiesel. The yields of ME-LSOs were in general somewhat higher than those obtained for ME-OSOs under the same conditions, which was attributed to the influence of the respective feedstocks' acid value and viscosity