adverbial clauses

I believe I am able to distinguish the structure of adverbial participle clauses from adverbial to-infinitive clauses, with the latter generally preceded by a preposition 'to'.

However, I don't know the difference in meaning between the two structures other than knowing through experience that some sentences favor one form than the other.For example,

Here is a list, detailing all my lies and deceptions.

I opened up the box, only to discover that it was empty.

What is the difference if the above sentences were written as follows (I know that they are likely to be incorrect):

Here is a list, to detail all my lies and deceptions.

I opened up the box, only discovering that it was empty.

I'm interested in knowing the difference in meaning or any tricks that could help in choosing the right form.

Thanks in advance!